EU unveils new symbol to identify medicines undergoing additional monitoring

There will shortly appear a new symbol - an inverted triangle – on the inside leaflet of certain medicinal products on the European Union market, following a legal act adopted by the European Commission yesterday.

The symbol will allow patients and health care professionals to easily identify medicinal products that are undergoing additional monitoring, and its accompanying text will encourage them to report unexpected adverse reactions through national reporting systems.

Tonio Borg, European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy, said: "The symbol is easy to recognize for patients and health care professionals. It will help to obtain more and better information from them on possible side effects of a medicine which then can be thoroughly analyzed. Stronger involvement of patients in the reporting on side effects is an integral part of Europe's pharmacovigilance system and – once in place - the new symbol will contribute to strengthen what is already one of the most advanced systems in the world."