The Pregnancy Registry program at Glaxo Wellcome Company.

Registries can be used to provide an early warning system for potential teratogenic effects associated with the use of specific medications during pregnancy. Glaxo Wellcome has developed 5 international registries: (1) the Acyclovir Pregnancy Registry, (2) the Antiretroviral Pregnancy Registry, (3) the Lamotrigine Pregnancy Registry, (4) the Sumatriptan Pregnancy Registry, and (5) the Bupropion Pregnancy Registry. The purpose of these registries is to gain more information about the potential teratogenicity of these drugs during pregnancy. Two potential limitations of such registry data are recognized: (1) the utility of the data collected depends on the size of the sample; and (2) the registered patients may not be representative of all patients using the medication. However, these types of registry reports can be a valuable and cost-effective way to collect data regarding the use of medications during pregnancy when conventional methods (eg, cohort studies) are not appropriate or feasible.