Sean Hennessy

Sean Hennessy, PharmD, PhD, is a Professor and Director of the Division of Epidemiology and the Center for Real-World Effectiveness and Safety of Therapeutics (CREST) at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. His research focuses on using healthcare data to evaluate drug safety and efficacy, particularly in high-risk drug interactions, cardiovascular outcomes of mental health medications, and vaccine effectiveness. He co-developed the instrumented difference-in-differences design for studying rapidly changing exposures and contributed to FDA label changes for metformin and the approval of the JE vaccine SA14-14-2.

Education:

• BS, Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science (1989)
• PharmD, Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science (1990)
• MSCE, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (1996)
• PhD, University of Pennsylvania (2002)

Research Interests:

• Drug-drug interactions involving anticoagulants, antidiabetics, and antiplatelets
• Cardiovascular safety of psychiatric medications
• Methodological advancements in pharmacoepidemiology
• Real-world evidence for regulatory decisions

His work has directly influenced public health policies, such as the exclusion of drug utilization review programs from Medicare Part D and the global deployment of the JE vaccine.

Awards:

• 2024 Kenneth Rothman Career Accomplishment Award
• 2015 Elected Member, National Academy of Medicine
• 2008 Leon I Goldberg Young Investigator Award
• Multiple best-paper awards and editorial roles in key journals

Leadership & Grants:

• Past President, International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology
• Past Chair, NIH Health Services Quality and Effectiveness study section
• Member, FDA Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee
• Co-editor of Pharmacoepidemiology (6th ed.) and Textbook of Pharmacoepidemiology (3rd ed.)

Labs/Teams: Leads the CREST center and collaborates with global health organizations to advance drug safety research.