Prescription drugs

[Guest guest]

I hope this doesn't mean the start of a campaign for further animal

testing.

 

MPs issue prescriptions warning

 

About 650m prescriptions are written by GPs each year

Too many drugs are being prescribed to patients before the full side-

effects are known, MPs have warned.

The health select committee said drug firms had become increasingly

focused on marketing and some GPs had been too easily influenced by

promotions.

 

It recommended an overhaul of the regulatory system in a bid to keep

the pharmaceutical industry in check.

 

The industry and government both said they were committed to ensuring

patients' safety was paramount.

 

The committee accepted medicines contributed enormously to the health

of the nation, but warned the use of drugs was getting out of

control.

 

About 650 million prescriptions are written each year by GPs and

medicines cost the NHS more than £7bn a year.

 

Drug reactions

 

The rise in drug use means the industry is now the third most

profitable in the UK, behind tourism and finance.

 

But the MPs warned it had come with a cost, with adverse drug

reactions responsible for 5% of all hospital admissions .

 

The committee said negative clinical trial results were being

suppressed and there was a risk trials which produced positive

results were not adequately designed.

 

And it said the promotion of medicines to doctors and patients lead

to the over-prescription of drugs, citing painkillers such as Cox-2

inhibitors, which have been linked to heart problems.

 

It is critically important to patients, the NHS and the

pharmaceutical industry that the public have trust in and benefit

from advances in medicines

 

Dr Richard Barker

Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry

 

The cross-party committee said the Department of Health had " for far

too long optimistically assumed that the interests of health and the

industry are as one " .

 

It recommended the regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare Products

Regulatory Agency (MHRA), be made more independent of government and

industry.

 

Committee chairman David Hinchliffe said: " The pharmaceutical

industry is extremely powerful and influences healthcare at every

level.

 

" Like any industry, drug companies need effective discipline and

regulation, and these have been lacking.

 

" The industry, regulator, doctors and other prescribers must take

their share of the blame. "

 

'Good faith'

 

But Dr Maureen Baker, honorary secretary of the Royal College of GPs,

said family doctors had to rely on the regulators.

 

" GPs act in good faith and in the best interests of their patients. "

 

Health Minister Lord Warner denied the industry and government were

too close.

 

" The government has an effective and proper working relationship with

the pharmaceutical industry.

 

" We are working with the industry to ensure they publish full details

of their clinical trials data on the medicines we use and we will

take any necessary further steps to strengthen these arrangements. "

 

The MHRA recently announced it would " name and shame " and, when

necessary, take legal action against drug firms which misleadingly

promote their products.

 

Dr Richard Barker, director general of the Association of British

Pharmaceutical Industry, said the committee had put forward a number

of constructive proposals but that moves to limit the promotion of

drugs would be a backwards step.

 

" It is critically important to patients, the NHS and the

pharmaceutical industry that the public have trust in and benefit

from advances in medicines, " he added.