The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 280 No 7502 p588
17 May 2008

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Information to patients

The UK Government strongly supports the maintenance of the current ban on direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription-only medicines to the public, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has said in the Government’s response to a European Commission consultation.

The EC Enterprise and Industry Directorate-General’s proposals on provision of information to patients (PJ, 19 April 2008, p457) closed for comments in April 2008.

The Government argues that the purpose of information about medicines, rather than its source, is the key factor when considering if information is advertising or information. Instead of attempting to define information, EU legislation should set out specific categories of acceptable information that could be promulgated by the pharmaceutical industry, the Government suggests.