Optimal drug therapy for children: Canadian initiatives.

Canada has a long tradition of undertaking research and training in pediatric clinical pharmacology, and has one of the longest continuous enterprises in this field in the world. Training in pediatric clinical pharmacology in Canada is nationally accredited and rigorous. Canada has the largest number of pediatric clinical pharmacologists per capita of any country on earth, but to date there have been no federally supported initiatives for child-focused drug research. The recent development of a unique national network focused on drug safety - the Genotypic Approaches to Therapy in Children - has provided a framework that it hopes will facilitate networking as well as the development of coordinated national and hopefully international initiatives in pediatric therapeutics.