The safety check

By Danica Hidalgo Cherewyk

After a new drug is discovered, it goes through pre-clinical research, clinical trials, regulatory review and approval, manufacturing, and quality assurance before it is made available to patients.

Dr. Payam Peymani, an assistant professor in the College of Pharmacy, works on the next phase: studying medications after they reach the public.

“If there are adverse effects from drugs,  we catch them,” he says. “We examine how treatments perform in the real world and generate reliable evidence to support informed decisions by patients and their families, as well as clinicians.”

Peymani is a pharmacoepidemiologist – a scientist who studies the safety and effectiveness of medications using realworld and population-level data.

Beyond clinical trials

His lab focuses on how medications are used to treat conditions such as diabetes, HIV and mental health medications that affect under-represented populations – especially children, adolescents and people who are pregnant.

“Many medications are used in these groups even though they are often not well represented in clinical trials,” says Peymani, also a researcher with the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba.

Using anonymized data, Peymani and his team link databases to study prescribing patterns and their potential effects on maternal and newborn health, child development and long-term patient outcomes.

One area his team is currently studying is antiretroviral therapy (ART), the standard treatment for HIV. Through the Canadian Mother-Child Cohort, his team is collaborating on research involving health data from six provinces, with records dating back to 1998.

“ART is essential during pregnancy to protect the health of the pregnant person and prevent HIV transmission to the baby,” he says. “Evidence about the safety of treatments and longer-term child outcomes remains incomplete. Our goal is to strengthen the evidence used to guide treatment and health policy.”

His work has been published in journals including BMJ Paediatrics Open, Drug Safety and Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology.

For the love of teaching, research and Manitoba

After earning a pharmacy degree and later a PhD in pharmacoepidemiology from Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in Iran, Peymani taught as an assistant professor before pursuing research positions in Switzerland and the Netherlands.

“I realized academia was a better fit,” he says. “I love teaching students, conducting research and working with data.”

In 2021, he joined Dr. Sherif Eltonsy’s lab in the College of Pharmacy to study the safety of anti-seizure medications. His family initially planned a short stay in Winnipeg. Six months later, they decided to make the city their permanent home.

“I love winter and cold weather,” he says. “My wife, daughter and I think people here are warmer and more welcoming. This is a great place to call home.”

In two years, he progressed from a postdoctoral fellow in Eltonsy’s lab to a research associate in the Max Rady College of Medicine. In 2024, he returned to the College of Pharmacy as lead research associate. A year later, he was appointed as a tenure-track assistant professor and launched his own lab.

Peymani says he has received tremendous support from the College of Pharmacy, the UM community and countless Manitobans.

“I’m here to give back,” he says. “I'm here to do my best to generate evidence that improves health and quality of life in Canada, especially for Manitobans.”