LAUSR

“CIOMS” is not an acronym that is widely known, and yet CIOMS guidelines have impacted and shaped the work of the World Health Organization (WHO), medicines regulatory authorities, academic organizations, the pharmaceutical industry, and other stakeholders globally in past decades. Co-founded by the WHO and UNESCO in 1949, the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences (CIOMS) has as its mission to advance public health through guidance on health research, including ethics, medical product development, and safety [1]. CIOMS has produced numerous guidance documents in the areas of bioethics, pharmacovigilance, and drug development and its publications have been translated into many languages including Chinese, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish [1]. This editorial provides an introduction to the work of CIOMS in the field of pharmacovigilance and highlights the relationship between the International Society of Pharmacovigilance (ISoP) and CIOMS.