Information for patients on medicines

The role of the pharmaceutical industry in providing information
about medicines to the public may well have been hampered in the past, not
so much by what the ABPI Code of Practice forbade as by what companies
thought it might forbid (Information for patients on medicines, 5
November). While the restrictions on advertising, marketing or promoting
prescription-only medicines to the public, imposed by legislation as well
as the code, remain very much in force, the revised ABPI code addresses in
more detail the provision of information to the public.

The revised code was the subject of consultation with the Medicines and
Healthcare products Regulatory Agency as well as the British Medical
Association, Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain and Royal
College of Nursing. Anybody concerned about information to the public or
advertising to health professionals may submit a complaint to the
Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority.

The new code is similar to the current code in that information must be
factual, presented in a balanced way and must not raise unfounded hopes of
successful treatment or be misleading with respect to the safety of the
product. Statements must not be made for the purpose of encouraging the
public to ask their health professional to prescribe a specific
prescription only medicine (Clause 20.2).

However, the new supplementary information to Clause 20.2 sets out in much
more detail than currently the type of information that can be provided by
the industry. For example, the concept of reference information as a
comprehensive, up-to-date resource for the public relating to prescription
only medicines with marketing authorisations has been introduced.

Reference information includes the regulatory information (summaries of
product characteristics, package leaflets and public assessment reports
where available) as well as registration studies, other studies, medicine
guides information about diseases and about specific medicines. Reference
information must represent fairly the current body of evidence relating to
a medicine and its benefit/risk profile. Companies are not obliged to
provide reference information but are advised that it is good practice to
provide at least the regulatory information as a minimum.
As a consequence of consultation with stakeholders as part of the review
process, a guide to the code for the public will be produced.

The industry has also been an active partner in the Ask About Medicines
range of activities, which centred on the Ask About Medicines Week in
November. The industry has long been campaigning for more freedom to
communicate non-promotional information to the public, beyond what is
currently permitted under UK law or the ABPI code, and this will continue.

The article by Joanne Shaw et al is absolutely right to highlight the
benefits that will result if the pharmaceutical industry is enabled to
communicate better with those who are its ultimate customers – patients.

Competing interests:
None declared