News & Events > Medicines information

The Medicines and Healthcare product Regulatory Agency (MHRA) have commissioned an online discussion site asking whether key information about medicines should be available online. The discussion site, aimed at healthcare professionals and the public, asks whether it is a good idea to make the MHRA's definitive database of patient information leaflets (PILs) and Summaries of Product Characteristics (SPCs) available online and, if so, what the site should look like. The discussion runs until 8 March.

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB) has published the results of a survey of pharmacists, general practitioners, primary care organisations and patients on their views of the 'Medicines Use Review' (MUR) service. According to the audit, 80% of the patients who took part in the first audit of MUR said their knowledge on medicines and how to use them had improved because of an MUR.

The European Union has a new health commissioner, John Dalli, who will be taking up a five year post next month. Changes to his mandate will mean that he has more influence over public health policy than his predecessors - which includes responsibility for drafting all future pharmaceutical legislation. He has expressed strong concerns about plans to allow drug companies to communicate directly with the public by allowing companies, under certain conditions, to publish information on their products in newspapers and magazines.

This research evaluates whether the use of "enhanced print" drug warnings on labels could improve patient comprehension. Patients received either current standard drug warning labels on prescription containers or drug warnings with text rewritten in plain language, with or without additional icons. The authors found that simple, explicit language on warning labels can increase patient understanding; the addition of appropriate icons is particularly useful for adults with lower literacy skills.

A survey conducted by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has discovered that 29% of people in the United Kingdom, over the age of 50, admit they forget to take their prescribed medicine. While 22% stop taking their medicine before the end of the course if they feel better. People who take prescribed medicines may take less than half the prescribed dose. Some forget, some misunderstand the instructions, and some refuse to believe they need medicines treatment at all.