Industry's Responsibility For Correct Drug Use

While compliance aids are helpful in getting people to use prescriptionmedicines properly, their provision should not involve expenditure by the UK National Health Service, according to Frank Dobson, UK Secretary of State for Health.

Rather, it is the responsibility of the manufacturers to get their products used correctly, said Mr Dobson, speaking at a Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain seminar this month, held to discuss a three-year joint initiative between the RPSGB and Merck Sharp & Dohme to address the issue of why patients do not take their medicines properly (Marketletter March 31).

Mr Dobson told the meeting that patients will have to be given more and better information on taking medicines. They need messages such as: "Keep taking the tablets till the bottle is empty;" - "These tablets will make you feel lousy before they make you feel well - so keep on taking them;" and "These pills should make you feel okay very quickly but they won't actually cure you until you have completed the 10-day course;" he said. "If they are never given the message, they cannot be expected to know what to do."