The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 275 No 7373 p540
29 October 2005

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New rules on veterinary medicines will come into force next week

New regulations on animal medicines, which replace 50 pieces of legislation, come into force on 31 October.

To coincide with the change, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society has produced practice guidance for the profession that outlines pharmacists’ statutory obligations from next week. The guidance will be published shortly and will soon be available on the Society’s website (www.rpsgb.org). The guidance will be kept under review and amended, as necessary.

The regulations will create four new classes of animal medicine and for the first time remove animal medicines from the control of the Medicines Act.

The changes will have only minor implications for pharmacists, according to Glasgow pharmacist and editor of the Veterinary Pharmacists Group newsletter Steven Kayne.

The four new classes of veterinary medicines replace the former five categories. The changes mean that pharmacists will lose the exclusive rights they have had in the past to supply 12 drugs in the old P category, he said.

“It’s not a huge loss in the bigger scheme of things,” he added.

Mr Kayne said the important next step would be to negotiate over which medicines were included in each of the four classes. “Everything is now up for grabs because none of the medicines classification has been sorted out yet.”

The new regulations come in as the Department of Trade and Industry is taking steps to break down the monopolies in the dispensing of prescription-only veterinary medicines and opening the market to community pharmacists.

The DTI recently supported the principle of pharmacists dispensing prescription-only medicines for animal health — despite opposition from veterinary surgeons — as part of its consultation on a draft new order for prescription only medicines for veterinary use.

Mr Kayne said: “The bigger impact on pharmacists will be when the DTI regulations on POMs and veterinary use come out.”