§ Lord Haleasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they have sought to establish with like-minded Governments arrangements for the reciprocal exchange of privileged communications reporting current tests of drugs and medicine on sale in either country and with what result.
§ Lord TrefgarneInformation supplied by pharmaceutical companies in connection with an application for a product licence must remain confidential for commercial reasons. Such information therefore cannot be supplied to the regulatory authority of another country without the permission of the applicant except to members of the European Community as required by our obligations under Community law.
Summaries of information derived from adverse reactions reports received by the Committee on Safety of Medicines are however transmitted to the World Health Organisation who make them available to all member states.
Data on medicinal products licensed in the United Kingdom are also available in a number of publications including the British National Formulary and Data Sheet Compendium.