HEALTH : INFORMATION TO PATIENTS: COMMISSION'S THIRD ATTEMPT.

In early 2012, the European Commission will present a third version of the proposals for a directive and a regulation aimed at providing guidelines for prescription drug information and monitoring the side effects of some of them. Indeed, after some member states expressed their reluctance with regard to the information chapter, the EU executive has chosen to separate the part dedicated to informing patients from the less controversial part on pharmacovigilance and to present two new - and separate - legislative proposals in 2012.

In December 2008, the Commission had proposed a pharmaceuticals package relative to pharmacovigilance, drug counterfeiting and information to patients. The first two chapters were settled, respectively, in 2010 and 2011. Following numerous amendments by the European Parliament and the Council's reluctance regarding the third aspect, in October 2011 the Commission presented...