Since 1978, responsibility for managing the WHO Programme for International Drug Monitoring has been carried by UMC. In the early years the staff consisted of just three pharmacists based at the Swedish Medical Products Agency ; currently over 100 staff work in central Uppsala. The founding chairman and acting Director was Professor Åke Liljestrand. From 1990 to 2009 the Director was Professor Ralph Edwards. Since September 2009 Dr. Marie Lindquist is the Director. The Chief Medical Officer is Dr. Pia Caduff and the Head of Research is Dr. Niklas Norén. The work of the UMC is:
To co-ordinate the WHO Programme for International Drug Monitoring and its more than 100 member countries.
To collect, assess and communicate information from member countries about the benefits, harms and risks of drugs and other substances used in medicine to improve patient therapy and public health worldwide
To collaborate with member countries in the development and practice of the science of pharmacovigilance.
The main focus and source of data in pharmacovigilance are reports of ICSRs from healthcare providers and patients in member countries of the WHO Programme. A WHO global individual case safety report database is maintained and developed on behalf of the WHO by UMC. UMC develops and provides several tools and classifications for use by organisations involved in drug safety, including the WHO Drug Dictionary, WHOART – with a bridge to the MedDRA terminology, tools for searching in the database, and a program for case report management, VigiFlow. UMC's research covers mainly three areas: data-driven discovery, safety surveillance and signaling and benefit—risk analysis. The centre has been active in presenting research in the medical literature which has included some seminal works in the field. The Uppsala centre has also published books in the field of drugs safety including a regular newsletter. In 2010 the 2nd edition of a crisis management guide was published, entitled 'Expecting the Worst'. UMC's role in drug safety has not been without controversy for both medicines agencies and pharmaceutical companies, despite an open approach willing to engage with many parties in the pharmaceutical world. They are closely involved in outreach to developing countries and other areas where pharmacovigilance is not yet handled.
WHO Programme key dates
1968 WHO Programme established. International ADR terminology and drug dictionary
1969 Definition of ADR
1978 Operations transferred to the UMC; setting-up of relational ADR database. Regular WHO Programme member meetings
1981 Computerised version of WHO Drug Dictionary available to all
