§ Mr. FlynnTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what new safeguards he intends to introduce for the development and the prescribing of drugs that act on the brain's 5HT receptors.
§ Mrs. Virginia Bottomley[holding answer 9 November 1989]: Satisfactory controls already exist under the Medicines Act to ensure that newly developed drugs are examined for safety quality and efficacy by the Committee on Safety of Medicines before a product licence is granted. Doctors exercise clinical judgment in deciding whether to prescribe new drugs and in doing so have regard to information from a wide variety of sources including product data sheets. We have no plans at present to introduce any further safeguards.