About the Authors

Luis A. García Rodríguez

Affiliation Spanish Centre for Pharmacoepidemiologic Research (CEIFE), Madrid, Spain

Mar Martín-Pérez

Affiliation Spanish Centre for Pharmacoepidemiologic Research (CEIFE), Madrid, Spain

Charles H. Hennekens

Affiliation Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, United States of America

Peter M. Rothwell

Affiliation Stroke Prevention Research Unit, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

Angel Lanas

angel.lanas@gmail.com

Affiliation University of Zaragoza, University Clinic Hospital, IIS Aragón, CIBERehd, Zaragoza, Spain

Competing Interests

Drs García Rodríguez and Martín-Pérez work at CEIFE, which has received research grants from Bayer Pharma AG. Dr García Rodríguez has been paid as a consultant for Bayer Pharma AG (Germany). Professor Lanas has received research grants from, and has been paid as a consultant for, Bayer Pharma AG. Professor Hennekens is funded by the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University. He serves as an independent scientist in an advisory role to investigators and sponsors as: Chair or Member of Data and Safety Monitoring Boards for Amgen, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Bristol Myers-Squibb, British Heart Foundation, Cadila, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, DalCor, Genzyme, Lilly, Regeneron, Sanofi, Sunovion and the Wellcome Foundation; advisor to Aralez/Pozen, the United States (U.S.) Food and Drug Administration, UpToDate, and legal counsel for Pfizer and Takeda. Professor Hennekens receives royalties for authorship or editorship of 3 textbooks and as coinventor on patents for inflammatory markers and CV disease that are held by Brigham and Women’s Hospital; has an investment management relationship with the West-Bacon Group within SunTrust Investment Services, which has discretionary investment authority and does not own any common or preferred stock in any pharmaceutical or medical device company. Professor Rothwell is a member of the Executive Committee of the ARRIVE trial and has received honoraria from Bayer for advisory boards. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: LGR. Performed the experiments: LGR CH AL MMP PR. Analyzed the data: LGR CH AL MMP PR. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: LGR MMP. Wrote the paper: LGR CH AL MMP PR.