Published 4 March 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b894
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b894

News

Organisations question EC changes on drug information for patients

Rory Watson

1 Brussels

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Medical and consumer organisations are raising concerns about plans by the European Commission to allow drug companies to provide information on prescription only drugs directly to the public. The drug industry is also questioning how the system would work in practice.

The initial reactions to measures that would allow drug companies to supply factual information on prescription only drugs to the public emerged last week at a conference in Brussels organised by the European Commission and the Organisation for Professionals in Regulatory Affairs.

The draft legislation, tabled last December, covers the type of information that may be given; the channels through which it may be supplied; the quality criteria and conditions to be met; the monitoring mechanisms to be put in place; and the sanctions to be applied in cases of non-compliance.

The conference was the first major opportunity for different groups to present their views in the same forum. . . . [Full text of this article]


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ