Three pharmacists are included among the 11 people appointed to review Medicines Control Agency decisions on whether individual medicines advertisements should be allowed.
They are Mr John Ferguson (former Secretary and Registrar of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society), Professor Bryan Veitch (a former chief pharmaceutical adviser to the Welsh Office) and Dr Sheila Stevens (secretary of the Society's Scottish Department). In addition to the three pharmacists, the review panel includes a legally qualified chairman (Mr James Watt) and two lay members (Ms Ruth Evans, director, National Consumer Council and Mr David Gilbert, a fellow at the Office for Public Management). There are also five medical practitioners - Professor James Brown (general medical practitioner, Coleraine), Dr Surendra Kumar (a member of the Royal College of GPs' council), Dr John Mucklow (consultant physician, North Staffordshire Hospital NHS trust), Dr Shirley Richards (council member of the British Medical Association) and Dr Nuala Sterling (consultant physician, Southampton University Hospitals NHS trust).
The panel has been created to provide an independent review mechanism for MCA advertising decisions, following pharmaceutical industry claims that powers given to the MCA, as they had originally been proposed, breached the European Convention on Human Rights. Originally, the MCA would have been the final arbiter of its own decisions.
Companies will now be able to appeal against MCA decisions. Each appeal will be heard by a small panel comprising the chairman (Mr Watt) plus one lay member and one of the professional members.