Melatonin tops list of unlicensed products imported into the UK
Melatonin treatments to tackle jet lag and sleep disturbance top the list of the most popular imported unlicensed products to the UK, according to statistics released by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. Other lifestyle treatments that dominate the list include allergy patches, which are ranked sixth, followed by vitamin and topical supplements.
The recent controversy around the safety of the measles, mumps and rubella
vaccination programme also impacts on the list, the report says. Monocomponent
mumps vaccines are the eighth most popular imported unlicensed product.
Homoeopathy also features in the summary
report for imported unlicensed
medicines between October and December 2007, with demand for Abnoba
vascum (mistletoe), which is used as supplementary therapy in the treatment
of cancer patients, putting this product in 10th place.
The list of the top 50 imported unlicensed drugs follows a request for
information under the Freedom of Information Act. The statistics and
the report have been compiled and published as the MHRA continues its
informal consultation
on specials manufacturing — making unlicensed
medicines to order — which finishes on 30 June 2008 (PJ,
8 March 2008, p266).
The report reveals that in the last quarter of 2007, 77 different licence
holders notified the MHRA about their desire to import unlicensed drugs
into the UK with 80 per cent of the notifications coming from just 10
per cent of the licence holders.
The report points out: “There appears to be an underlying trend
for increase in the number of notifications received, although this has
been masked by a decline in the number of notifications from the dominant
importers.”
The MHRA believes compiling and releasing the information may benefit
the present consultation and it is considering releasing quarterly statistics
routinely if the present information is found to be useful.
|
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
Acrobat
Reader