EU wants 95% of medicines POM
Sources in the Department have confirmed the Commission wants all medicines with a withdrawal period and all injectables to be prescription only.
The Commission proposes that only medicines which do not present a risk to human or animal health, even if administered without veterinary prescription, can be supplied without a prescription.
The proposals leave little room for national regulatory bodies to exempt individual veterinary medicinal products from a mandatory prescription requirement.
"In view of this, medicines such as wormers would, under the criteria, require a prescription. In addition, it is also envisaged under the draft criteria that all injectable products would be restricted to prescription only and this would include the majority of vaccines," said a Department of Agriculture spokesman who last week reported on the progress of negotiations to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on European Affairs.
He revealed that if these exemption criteria are not substantially amended to meet Ireland's requirements, the Department will, in consultation with stakeholders, review prescription arrangements, with a view to persons other than vets being permitted to prescribe medicines.
He said the Department is committed to retaining off-prescription status for most of the medicines which enjoy that status. They have until March 17 to make the case to the Commission for more flexible criteria.
