WHICH? MEDICINE: INFORMATION INITIATIVES

After many years of debate and research some progress has been made in providing consumers with detailed instructions for taking medicines. Manufacturers have started to include information leaflets with packaged products: around 40 per cent of branded products now come in manufacturers' original packs rather than in brown bottles carrying only the pharmacist's label.

The progress in supplying information for consumers will accelerate as the new European Directive on the labelling of medicines comes into force in January 1994. All medicines, both those on prescription and products sold over the counter, will have to comply with comprehensive labelling requirements. There will I also be clear, easy-to-understand package leaflets produced by manufacturers, but these will not include, for example, comparative information about a group of similar drugs. Which? Medicine has no ties to government or industry and supplies independent information that places individual drugs in a wider context - the key to choice.

Consumers' Association campaigns on a wide range of freedom of information issues. It is currently backing a bill to change the law that prohibits disclosure of information about why medicines are licensed and why some are withdrawn. This is an important step towards letting the public know just how safe medicines are.

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