CIHR appoints executive director for drug safety network

Ottawa, ON – Dr Robert Peterson, clinical professor of paediatrics at the University of British Columbia, has been appointed executive director of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s Drug Safety and Effectiveness Network (DSEN).

“Dr Peterson comes with excellent credentials to be our first executive director for this network,” said Dr Alain Beaudet, president of the CIHR. “His achievements in pharmacology research, coupled with strong government experience, make him the ideal candidate to bring together the many stakeholders involved with DSEN to generate additional post-market evidence regarding the safety and effectiveness of pharmaceuticals.”

The network will respond to decision-makers’ drug safety and effectiveness information needs and increase capacity within Canada to undertake high-quality research in this area.

“I hope to justify the confidence that CIHR has conveyed in this appointment as Executive Director of DSEN,” said Dr Peterson. “I enthusiastically look forward to working with the many stakeholders that will make this exciting initiative a success.”

Dr Peterson received a MD degree and PhD in pharmacology from Yale University in 1974. He completed a Master’s of Public Health at Harvard University’s School of Public Health in 1996.

Over the course of his career, he has been director of the section of paediatric clinical pharmacology at the University of Colorado, professor of paediatrics and pharmacology and chairman of the department of paediatrics at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine, and director of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute.

He has also served as the director general of the Therapeutic Products Directorate at Health Canada from 2000 to 2005, before returning to academics to become clinical professor of paediatrics at the University of British Columbia and senior associate clinician scientist at the Child and Family Research Institute at BC Children’s Hospital.