The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 278 No 7440 p208
24 February 2007

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New safety criteria to be introduced for animal medicines

Safety criteria under which medicines for use in food-producing animals can be exempt from prescription control have been specified by the European Commission (PDF 40K).

To be exempt from prescription control, the use of such medicines must require no specialist knowledge or skills, the medicines must be free of risk to the animal and the user if used incorrectly, free of serious side effects or adverse reactions, free of interactions with other non-prescription animal medicines, and residues in food must pose no risk to consumers and there must be no possibility of the development of antimicrobial or anthelmintic resistance.