Karel
van der Waarde

Patients receive information about their medicines from a number of sources. The package leaflet is one of the main printed sources of information, which is both welcomed and criticized by patients. They are seen as important, especially in describing the effects of a specific medicine on a particular condition, and advising about side effects. On the other hand, these leaflets are frequently rigid in their structure, hard to understand and insufficiently legible. (Figure 1)

If anything has been shown in the last few decades, it is that individual approaches from each of these groups have not been effective. Consumer associations and patient organizations, manufacturers and the EU-departments have individually suggested improvements based on their particular perspectives. Most of these initiatives failed because the other parties were not actively involved.

The main issue is to find appropriate methods to bring these groups together so that the legal-, economic-, technological- and social issues can be considered. The starting point is that clear and understandable information is an essential ingredient of a medicine.

The pharmaceutical industry, the medical- and pharmaceutical professions, the regulators, and patients have to co-operate to improve these.

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