About the Authors

Elisabetta Poluzzi

Affiliation Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Alma Mater Studiorum—University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

Emanuel Raschi

Affiliation Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Alma Mater Studiorum—University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

Brian Godman

Affiliations Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, Strathclyde University, Glasgow, United Kingdom

Ariola Koci

Affiliation Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Alma Mater Studiorum—University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

Ugo Moretti

Affiliation Clinical Pharmacology Unit, University of Verona, Verona, Italy

Marija Kalaba

Affiliation Republic Fund for Health Insurance, Belgrade, Serbia

Bjorn Wettermark

Affiliations Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, Centre for Pharmacoepidemiology, Karolinska University Hospital, Solna, Stockholm, Sweden, Stockholm, County Council, Stockholm, Sweden

Miriam Sturkenboom

Affiliation Erasmus University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, Netherlands

Fabrizio De Ponti

fabrizio.deponti@unibo.it

Affiliation Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Alma Mater Studiorum—University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

Competing Interests

All authors have completed the Unified Competing Interest form available on request from the corresponding author. E.P., E.R., A.K., U.M., M.K., B.W., F.D.P. declare no support from any organisation for the submitted work; no financial relationships with any organisations that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous three years; no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work. B.W. is involved in the regional Drug and Therapeutics Committee and national groups developing guidance for the rational introduction of new medicines in Sweden. The institution of B.G. (Karolinska Institutet) received part of the grant for the ARITMO project to collect European drug utilization data. M.S. is heading a research group that has received grants and also conducts studies for companies, but none related to the present work. This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: EP ER UM FDP MS. Performed the experiments: AK BG MK BW. Analyzed the data: BG AK MK BW. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: AK. Wrote the paper: EP ER AK UM BG MK BW MS FDP.