Author: Lynne Taylor

US drugmakers and wholesalers have welcomed California’s decision to delay for another two years the requirement that all prescription drugs should be tracked electronically, from the beginning to the end of the supply chain, in order to reduce the risk of counterfeit and substandard drugs reaching patients.

People in Wales are asking their general practitioners to prescribe over-the-counter medications, including head-lice cream for everyone in their family, and are now requesting more prescription items than they did before the Welsh government abolished prescription charges exactly a year ago, according to a new survey of GPs.

The UK National Health Service must be protected from international trade agreements, which pose “a great threat” to universal systems of health care, Members of Parliament have been warned.

During 2002-6, a total of 1 billion euros was “wasted” by the French health care system as a result of physicians prescribing branded rather than generic drugs in just five classes of medicines under pressure from company representatives, claims a report by the national consumer group Union Federale des Consummateurs – Que Choisir (UFC-QUE CHOISIR).

The European Commission’s proposal to amend the rules covering drug information provided by the industry to patients is “clearly driven by the pharmaceutical industry’s interests, not by the interests of patients,” claims leading UK patient advocacy group The Picker Institute.