Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-07-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment the Government has made of the level of compliance with Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency guidance that specifies that biological medicines should be prescribed by brand name.

Nicola Blackwood

Guidance issued by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in 2008 states that, when prescribing biological products, it is good practice to use the brand name.

MHRA does not have responsibility for monitoring the compliance of healthcare professionals with its prescribing guidance. The responsibility for prescribing rests with the practitioner who has clinical responsibility for their patient’s care and we would expect practitioners to take any relevant guidance into account when making their prescribing decisions. Practitioner professional bodies also have a role in setting out best practice to their members.