Medical Advisory Board
Last reviewed: 2026-04-29.
Current state
We’re recruiting the medical advisory board now. Until it is fully constituted, ratings sourced from Embryotox (the pregnancy lens) carry the institutional attribution “Editorial Team” and “Medical Review Board”. Ratings sourced from LactMed (the breastfeeding lens) that need individual clinical judgement are held back from display until board review. We never surface a rating that came purely from an algorithm.
Composition
The board carries at least five named seats, each in a defined specialty:
- Obstetrics & gynecology
- An OB-GYN with academic affiliation — ideally a German Frauenklinik with access to Embryotox or a comparable network. Owns the pregnancy lens and is the escalation path for safety signals.
- Dermatology
- A dermatologist with cosmetic-dermatology focus. Owns INCI-list review for cosmetic products (CosIng baseline + Open Beauty Facts products).
- Clinical pharmacy (teratology / lactation)
- A clinical pharmacist with teratology + lactation specialization. Reviews drug-level questions across all three life stages.
- Pediatrics
- A pediatrician. Owns the breastfeeding lens from the infant side (relative infant dose, tolerance signals, preterm specifics).
- Midwifery
- A midwife (Hebamme). Brings the German cultural and daily-life clinical context — the everyday reality of pregnant and postpartum users we’re building for.
One of the five members is designated MAB Chair on a rotating two-year term. The Chair is the operational counterpart to the Geschäftsführung; clinical independence stays with each individual member.
How we pay the board
We pay a fixed monthly retainer, independent of:
- the volume of ratings reviewed;
- the outcome of any rating (approved, rejected, revision-requested);
- the brand or manufacturer of the product under review;
- any commercial arrangement between drylabs GmbH and a brand.
This separates the financial incentive from the rating outcome.
We pay for time, not for results. The structure is public; the
specific amounts are confidential. The full editorial-firewall
posture is documented in CLAUDE.md §14.4 and the internal
governance doc docs/regulatory-file/mab-governance.md.
Conflict of interest
On engagement and annually thereafter, every board member files a written declaration covering:
- current and past consulting / advisory engagements with pharmaceutical, cosmetic, or supplement manufacturers;
- equity, royalties, or revenue-share arrangements;
- speaking-fee history above €5,000/year from any one entity;
- family / household financial interests with the same.
When a review touches a brand or manufacturer with which a member has a declared relationship, that member automatically recuses from the specific work item. The recusal event is logged in our tamper-evident audit chain (CLAUDE.md §13).
What we will never do
- No outcome-based compensation. No bonuses, royalties, or equity in drylabs GmbH for board members.
- No brand-funded board seats. A brand can pay us for the review process (Brand Certification); never for a specific outcome.
- No per-rating fees. Per-rating fees would create a financial incentive to favour high-throughput “approve” verdicts.
Recruitment in progress
We’re seating the board over the coming months. As members are named, they’ll appear here with name, license, institutional affiliation, and (optionally) photograph. Until then, active ratings carry the institutional attribution “Editorial Team” and “Medical Review Board”; low-confidence LactMed ratings remain hidden until individual board review.
Interested in a board seat? Write to
editorial@pregnancylens.com.
More
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