A Private Member's Bill that would place a statutory duty on pharmaceutical manufacturers to produce data on the use of new medicines in children, where paediatric use is likely, has been introduced to the House of Commons.
Introducing the Bill on January 14, Mr Andrew Love (Lab, Edmonton) expressed concern at the frequency with which medicines were used to treat children when they were not licensed for the purpose. He said that recent figures showed that 67 per cent of children admitted to hospital in five European countries over a four-week period had received unlicensed treatment.
The MP said that his Bill would not prevent the use of medicines beyond their licences where this was of benefit, but that it would lead to the regulation and evaluation of new medicines for use in children as they came to market. This would improve the information available to doctors when prescribing for children.
The system could be extended to include established medicines as their marketing authorisations came up for five-yearly review, Mr Love said.