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Thalidomide, sold under the brand names Contergan and Thalomid among others, is an oral medication used to treat a number of cancers, graft-versus-host disease, and many skin disorders. Thalidomide has been used to treat conditions associated with HIV: aphthous ulcers, HIV-associated wasting syndrome, diarrhea, and Kaposi's sarcoma, but increases in HIV viral load have been reported.
The regulation of therapeutic goods, defined as drugs and therapeutic devices, varies by jurisdiction. In some countries, such as the United States, they are regulated at the national level by a single agency. In other jurisdictions they are regulated at the state level, or at both state and national levels by various bodies, as in Australia.
Pharmacovigilance, also known as drug safety, is the pharmaceutical science relating to the "collection, detection, assessment, monitoring, and prevention" of adverse effects with pharmaceutical products. The etymological roots for the word "pharmacovigilance" are: pharmakon and vigilare. As such, pharmacovigilance heavily focuses on adverse drug reactions (ADR), which are defined as any response to a drug which is noxious and unintended, including lack of efficacy. Medication errors such as overdose, and misuse and abuse of a drug as well as drug exposure during pregnancy and breastfeeding, are also of interest, even without an adverse event, because they may result in an adverse drug reaction.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is an agency of the European Union (EU) in charge of the evaluation and supervision of pharmaceutical products. Prior to 2004, it was known as the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products or European Medicines Evaluation Agency (EMEA).
The British Pharmacopoeia (BP) is the national pharmacopoeia of the United Kingdom. It is an annually published collection of quality standards for medicinal substances in the UK, which is used by individuals and organisations involved in pharmaceutical research, development, manufacture and testing.
In the European Economic Area, a supplementary protection certificate (SPC) is a sui generis intellectual property (IP) right that extends the duration of certain rights associated with a patent. It enters into force after expiry of a patent upon which it is based. This type of right is available for various regulated, biologically active agents, namely human or veterinary medicaments and plant protection products. Supplementary protection certificates were introduced to encourage innovation by compensating for the long time needed to obtain regulatory approval of these products.
Good clinical practice (GCP) is an international quality standard, which governments can then transpose into regulations for clinical trials involving human subjects. GCP follows the International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH), and enforces tight guidelines on ethical aspects of clinical research.
A biopharmaceutical, also known as a biological medical product, or biologic, is any pharmaceutical drug product manufactured in, extracted from, or semisynthesized from biological sources. Different from totally synthesized pharmaceuticals, they include vaccines, whole blood, blood components, allergenics, somatic cells, gene therapies, tissues, recombinant therapeutic protein, and living medicines used in cell therapy. Biologics can be composed of sugars, proteins, nucleic acids, or complex combinations of these substances, or may be living cells or tissues. They are isolated from living sources—human, animal, plant, fungal, or microbial. They can be used in both human and animal medicine.
The U.S. Kefauver–Harris Amendment or "Drug Efficacy Amendment" is a 1962 amendment to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
EudraLex is the collection of rules and regulations governing medicinal products in the European Union.
Directive 75/318/EEC of 20 May 1975 on the approximation of the laws of Member States relating to analytical, pharmaco-toxicological and clinical standards and protocols in respect of the testing of proprietary medicinal products. This directive of the European Union sought to bring the benefits of innovative pharmaceuticals to patients across Europe by introducing the mutual recognition, by Member States, of their respective national marketing authorisations.
Directive 75/319/EEC of 20 May 1975 on the approximation of the laws of Member States relating to analytical, pharmaco-toxicological and clinical standards and protocols in respect of the testing of proprietary medicinal products. This directive of the European Union sought to bring the benefits of innovative pharmaceuticals to patients across Europe by introducing the mutual recognition, by Member States, of their respective national marketing authorisations.
Council of the European Communities Directive 93/41/EEC of 14 June 1993 repealed Directive 87/22/EEC on the approximation of national measures relating to the marketing of high-technology medicinal products, as this directive had been superseded by Council Regulation (EEC) No 2309/93 of 22 July 1993 laying down Community procedures for the authorization and supervision of medicinal products for human and veterinary use and establishing a European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products (5) and by Council Directive 88/182/EEC of 22 March 1988 amending Directive 83/189/EEC laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations (6).
Directive 2001/83/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 November 2001 on the Community code relates to medicinal products for human use in mainly countries that are part of the European Union. The Directive dealt with the disparities between certain national provisions, in particular between provisions relating to medicinal products, which directly affected the functioning of the internal market of the European Union.
The Clinical Trials Directive is a European Union directive that aimed at facilitating the internal market in medicinal products within the European Union, while at the same time maintaining an appropriate level of protection for public health. It seeks to simplify and harmonise the administrative provisions governing clinical trials in the European Community, by establishing a clear, transparent procedure.
The Medicines Act 1968 is an act of Parliament of the United Kingdom. Its official long title is "An Act to make new provision with respect to medicinal products and related matters, and for purposes connected therewith." It governs the control of medicines for human use and for veterinary use, which includes the manufacture and supply of medicines, and the manufacture and supply of (medicated) animal feeding stuffs.
The European Directive on Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products (THMPD), formally the Directive 2004/24/EC amending, as regards traditional herbal medicinal products, Directive 2001/83/EC on the Community code relating to medicinal products for human use, was established by the European Parliament and Council on 31 March 2004 to provide a simplified regulatory approval process for traditional herbal medicines in the European Union (EU). Previously, there was no formal EU wide authorisation procedure, so each EU member state regulated these types of products at the national level.
Homeopathy is fairly common in some countries while being uncommon in others. In some countries, there are no specific legal regulations concerning the use of homeopathy, while in others, licenses or degrees in conventional medicine from accredited universities are required.
Marketing authorisation is the process of reviewing and assessing the evidence to support a medicinal product, such as a drug, in relation to its marketing, finalised by granting of a licence to be sold.
The distribution of medications has special drug safety and security considerations. Some drugs require cold chain management in their distribution.
References
- Maio G., On the history of the Contergan (thalidomide) catastrophe in the light of drug legislation, Dtsch Med Wochenschr. 2001 October 19;126(42):1183-6.
- Shah RR., Thalidomide, drug safety and early drug regulation in the UK, Adverse Drug React Toxicol Rev. 2001 Dec;20(4):199-255.