The Prescription Only Medicines (Human Use) Order 1997

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order consolidates with amendments the Medicines (Products Other Than Veterinary Drugs) (Prescription Only) Order 1983 as amended. That Order and the Orders amending it (“the 1983 Order as amended”) are revoked by article 16 and Schedule 6.

This Order specifies the descriptions and classes of prescription only medicines (i.e. medicinal products which, subject to exemptions, may be sold or supplied by retail only in accordance with a prescription given by an appropriate practitioner and which may be administered only by or in accordance with the directions of such a practitioner). Many medicinal products are included in a class of such medicines by reason of the substances contained in them (seeSchedule 1) but others are included because of other criteria, such as their method of administration (seearticle 3). In many cases the provisions of the Act apply subject to exemptions (seearticles 4 and 5 to 13 and Schedule 1).

The principal amendments relate to those medicines in respect of which marketing authorizations have been granted by the European Community. They include as prescription only medicines those medicines in respect of which such an authorization has been granted which classifies a medicine as being subject to medical prescription (article 3(f)). They exclude from the class of prescription only medicines those medicines in respect of which such an authorization provides for supply which is not subject to medical prescription (article 6(3)).

The differences between this Order and the 1983 Order as amended are in the main technical changes concerning the location of provisions such as the division of material in Schedule 1 to the 1983 Order as amended between the new Schedules 1 and 2. But within the new Schedule 1 there are changes which relate to–

(a) the deletion from Column 1 of substances which are no longer used in those medicinal products which are on the market;

(b) the use of current names for the substances which are specified in that Column where their names have changed;

(c) the incorporation in that Schedule of provisions from article 4 of, and Part IV of Schedule 1 to, the 1983 Order as amended so that they may be found more easily;

(d) a change in the legal base for the entries in Columns 2 to 4 so that those entries now form the criteria for exemptions from the sale or supply requirements of section 58(2) of the Medicines Act 1968 instead of the criteria for excluding medicinal products from the class of prescription only medicines (see alsoarticle 5);

(e) the introduction of a fifth Column which specifies the maximum pack sizes to which exemptions apply.

As this order will impose no additional costs to business a compliance cost assessment has not been prepared.