Patient packs are here to stay because the European Directive on Labels and Leaflets (92/27/EC) was written with them in mind, the British Generic Manufacturers Association said in a statement on June 6.
The BGMA said that it felt it was necessary to clarify the position on patient packs because of rumours circulating that potential changes in the reimbursement system for community pharmacists would lead to its member companies reverting to producing bulk packs. These rumours were based in part on a misunderstanding of remarks made by the Parliamentary Under-secretary of State for Health (Ms Gisela Stuart) in a recent House of Commons debate on the prices of generic medicines. She had stated that "the provision of a patient information leaflet and the provision of certain information on the label . . . cannot be equated with a patient pack."
Mr Warwick Smith (director, BGMA) said: "The directive sets out in some detail the information which patients must receive on a label and on a leaflet with dispensed medicines. A lot of information is batch specific. Patient pack dispensing is the only way of ensuring that the right information is given to patients with the right medicine. Any other way of attempting to do this risks patients receiving the wrong information and puts an impossible burden on pharmacists.
"It is unreasonable and dangerous to expect pharmacists to match up correct labels and leaflets with medicines. And it is just not possible for them to comply with the legal requirements where manufacturers supply medicines in bulk packs with one label and one leaflet, or even with multiple numbers of leaflets."
BGMA members would not go back on their commitment to patient packs. They had made capital investments to introduce patient packs because they were in the interests of patients and pharmacists.
Commenting on Ms Stuart's statement, Mr Smith said that the directive was based on the assumption that patient packs would be used, as they were almost everywhere except the United Kingdom. The Government had put the directive into UK law, but the real issue was how pharmacists could comply with that law.

Patient packs are the only way of complying with the law, BGMA says