The society was launched officially by Stanley A. Edlavitch, David E. Lilienfeld, and Hugh A. Tilson in 1989 during the Fifth International Conference on Pharmacoepidemiology (ICPE) in Minneapolis.
A number of the major figures in drug safety and pharmacovigilance have served as its Presidents, and its Officers and Trustees have been drawn from the leadership of the pharmacoepidemiology community.
The official journal of the society is Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety which is indexed in MEDLINE and the regularly edited newsletter Scribe is available on the above-mentioned website of ISPE.
The current president of the society is Almut G. Winterstein from the College of Pharmacy, University of Florida, USA.
[citation needed] The ISPE is directed by a structured Board of Trustees, ensuring that each of its various constituencies has some voice within the organization.