The ‘Frontier of Medical Sciences Forum 2012—the Conference on Pharmacogenomics Translational Medicine, the Fourth International Conference on Pharmacovigilance and Drug Safety’ were held in Changsha, Hunan on 23 November 2012 with the theme ‘To Advance the Development of Pharmacogenomics Translational Medicine and to Promote the Safe and Effective Medications’. During the conference, participants discussed the recent advances and challenges in drug safety, pharmacovigilance, paediatric medicines, pharmacogenomics and pharmacoeconomics. The conferences were organized by the Division of Medicine and Health, the Chinese Academy of Engineering, undertaken by the Central South University, and co-organized by the Centre for Food and Drug Safety, Faculty of Medicine, CUHK; University Paris-Est Créteil, and the University of Helsinki.