Challenges of studying drugs in pregnancy for off-label indications: Pravastatin for preeclampsia prevention

Statins (3-hydroxy-3 methyl-glutaryl coenzyme-A reductase inhibitors) are the most commonly prescribed cholesterol-lowering medications due to their efficacy in reducing cardiovascular mortality and morbidities, tolerability, and safety profiles. Based on pathophysiologic similarities between cardiovascular disease and preeclampsia, a common and dangerous complication of pregnancy, there is an increasing interest in studying this class of medications during pregnancy to prevent and/or treat preeclampsia. Undergoing such a study, which entails the use of a pregnancy class X medication for an off-label indication in pregnancy, requires intensive multidisciplinary involvement of a group of experts in basic and clinical pharmacology, research methods, pregnancy physiology and maternal–fetal medicine, as well as U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory guidelines and practice. Issues of potential fetal risk, altered maternal–fetal pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, and regulatory challenges are real, and must be carefully considered in the process of research in this arena.