EU exempts some medicines from prescription-only provision

CERTAIN veterinary medicines for food- producing animals are to be exempted from the general legal requirement that they be supplied only on prescription.

A decision on the criteria taken by the EU Veterinary Pharmaceutical Committee was welcomed by both Agriculture Minister Mary Coughlan and the farm lobby.

The relevant EU Directive included a provision that these medicines should only be supplied on the basis of a veterinary prescription, unless exempted. The EU has now adopted the exemption criteria.