| Brief
Overview / Significance |
- This Act controls the supply, sale and administration of medicinal products, according
to category:
- Definitions of legal categories:
- GSL: "A medicine which comes within the General Sale List." (B202)
- P: "A pharmacy medicine." (B202)
- POM: "A prescription only medicine." (B202)
- PML: "A medicine which comes within The Medicines (Exemptions for Merchants
in Veterinary Drugs) Order 1998 and its successors." (B202)
- Medicines on the PML list are obtainable from pharmacists, veterinary
surgeons and from agricultural merchants, but only to a buyer who is a farmer or person
who maintains animals for business purposes.
- Medicines which are Pharmacy medicines do not require a prescription
but can only be supplied by a registered pharmacy or a veterinary surgeon.
- POM drugs are available on prescription only, as issued by a veterinary
surgeon, and can only be supplied for animals that are "under the care" of the
prescribing veterinary surgeon.
- Medicines on the General Sale List may be obtained without a
prescription and some may be sold by e.g. pet shops and supermarkets (for example some
anthelmintics).
- Under the Act, a veterinary surgeon may only dispense PML or POM medicines to clients
for administration to "animals under his care", i.e. that the veterinary surgeon
has real responsibility for the animal(s) concerned, not just nominal responsibility, and
has seen them recently or has sufficient knowledge of their state of health to be able to
diagnose/prescribe properly for them.
- Under the Act POM medicines may only be administrated by a veterinary surgeon or by a
person acting "in accordance with the directions" of a veterinary surgeon.
(J35.147.w1, B223, P19.2.w1)
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