[The congress of the French Society of Pharmacology and Therapeutics celebrate in Nancy, 20 April 2016, 40 years of French Regional Pharmacovigilance Centres!]

In 1976, the Regional Pharmacovigilance Centres were created in France to collect and analyze adverse drug reactions. Even if they have, to date, managed and transmitted more than 583,000 adverse drug reactions to the French and international health authorities, the missions of these university hospital structures supervised by clinical pharmacologists are not limited to this activity. They also provide a consulting and diagnostic aid for drug diseases. Their other main mission is information about drugs and their proper use for health professionals and patients on any matter relating to medicines. These queries are used to adjust and focus the training of health professionals in prevention of drug risks and improvement of drug use. Beside signal detection and identification of alerts, the 31 Regional Pharmacovigilance Centres collaborate with the French Drug Agency (Agence nationale de sécurité du medicament et des produits de santé [ANSM]) by achieving expertise on drugs and participation in various working groups and committees. Finally, Regional Pharmacovigilance Centres participate in scientific advancement through research and publication activities.