European Alliance for Access to Safe Medicines (EAASM), UK

 Patient safety group calls for urgent action on unlicensed (off-label)medicines. Following a manufacturer's withdrawal of an off-label drug to treat an opthalmic condition, the European Alliance for Access to Safe Medicines (EAASM) highlights the need for more regulation of these unlicensed medicines. The withdrawn product was prescribed for economic considerations, rather than as a benefit to patients. Speaking at the European Parliament, the Chair of the EAASM, Jim Thomson, points out: “We are not just heading for a healthcare system where economic factors are placed before patient safety and choice - we are already there. What we have here is a medicine, compounded by one of the world’s leading eye hospitals, being used for a condition for which it is not licensed, in preference to the licensed alternative. This is about money, pure and simple - but at what price? Patient safety? What price is a patient’s sight worth?” Despite concerns about the safety of unlicensed medicines, the EAASM believes that the UK's General Medical Council (GMC) is considering changing its guidance on the use of unlicensed medicines to allow doctors to make prescribing decisions determined by cost. The EAASM is calling for tighter regulation of off-label prescription medicines. For further information, contact Jim Thomson:
jim.thomson@eaasm.eu