Alejandro Arana MD, MPH, MSc, FISPE is a highly regarded expert in pharmacoepidemiology. He was previously Head of Global Epidemiology at Novartis and has held senior executive positions at Pharmacia and Pfizer. He is the co-founder of Risk MR Pharmacovigilance Services Risk Management Resources, in Zaragoza, Spain in 2006, an international organization dedicated to pharmacoepidemiology, drug safety, and risk management activities.

Dr Arana has had responsibility for numerous epidemiological projects including risk management strategies and plans, risk minimization activities, applications of epidemiological methods to quantitative analysis of spontaneous reports, signal detection prototypes, signal detection throughout product lifecycles, benefit risk modeling, and validity of epidemiology research conducted following good clinical practice guidelines. He has collaborated on international projects involving the epidemiology of aging and dementia at the University of Zaragoza and Erasmus University. He has acted as an advisor in many projects including the Pan American Health Organization AIDS program for El Salvador, in Washington DC.

Dr Arana has lectured and led workshops, presented at scientific meetings, and provided pharmacoepidemiology training in the US, UK, Japan, France, and Spain on Pharmacovigilance, Epidemiology, Drug Safety, and Risk Management. He has authored and co-authored numerous scientific publications. He is a Fellow of the International Society of Pharmacoepidemiology (FISPE), member of the Board of Directors of the ISPE, and co-chair of the Industry council of ISPE. 

Dr Arana received his medical degree from the University of Zaragoza and did his post-graduate medical training in Preventive Medicine at the Zaragoza University Hospital in Spain. He holds a MPH in epidemiology from the Institute of Public Health of Valencia University, and a MSc in epidemiology from Erasmus University Medical School in Rotterdam.