Diets: Drugs

(asked on 11th October 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made on the adequacy of the availability of vegan and vegetarian medicines.


Answered by
Steve Brine Portrait
Steve Brine
This question was answered on 19th October 2017

Medicines are developed to treat or prevent particular medical conditions or their symptoms and are licensed on the basis of their quality, safety and efficacy. Although there are many medicines that are free from animal derived materials, there are also cases where no animal-free treatment option exists. This may be because the active ingredient cannot be made synthetically, or animal derived materials are necessary for the formulation or manufacture of the product.

The current requirements for medicines labelling are set out in European and national legislation. Unlike food legislation, there is no mechanism for the inclusion within the labelling of a medicine for any information on whether or not the product is suitable for vegetarians or vegans. Patients who wish to identify such products will need to rely on the information that is provided in the accompanying patient information leaflet or directly by their pharmacist.

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