Forum to mull UK labelling guidance

The UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, in collaboration with Management Forum and the National Patient Safety Agency, have organised a one-day conference on 1 July which will include an update on the new MHRA Best Practice Guidance on the Labelling and Packaging of Medicines.

The meeting, called Pharmaceutical labelling and patient information​, will consider why the guidance has come about and how it relates to the legal requirements, as well as providing insights into how the pharmaceutical industry can use labelling and packaging to improve patient safety.

Key contributors include Jan MacDonald, head of product information in the post-licensing division of the MHRA, and Professor David Cousins, head of safe medication practice at the NPSA.

The Best Practice document was published in March and set out what factors should be considered when designing medicines labelling, including the layout, size of text and colours used.

Although legal requirements already exist for the information that must appear on medicines labelling, the UK's Committee on Safety of Medicines undertook an extensive review of the current situation and their advice was that many improvements could be made within the current legal framework.