The 2015 US Food and Drug Administration Pregnancy and Lactation Labeling Rule

As of 2015, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) discontinued the pregnancy risk categories (ABCDX) that had been used to denote the putative safety of drugs for use among pregnant women. The ABCDX system has been replaced by the FDA Pregnancy and Lactation Labeling Rule (PLLR) that requires narrative text to describe risk information, clinical considerations, and background data for the drug. The new rule includes 3 overarching categories: 1) pregnancy, which includes labor and birth; 2) lactation; and 3) females and males of reproductive potential. This article reviews the key components of the PLLR and clinical implications, and provides resources for clinicians who prescribe drugs for women of reproductive age.