Campaign on children's medicines
Children's health depends to a large extent on the availability of appropriate medicines. Half of the medicines used to treat 100 million children and adolescents in the EU have not been adequately tested and approved for them. Rather, medicines are often used that have been tested almost exclusively on adults. However, the use of medicines that have not been adequately tested in children poses a number of treatment risks, as the effect of a medicine varies depending on the physical development of the child. For example, the organism of a newborn is not comparable with that of a child or adolescent, and certainly not with that of an adult.
Primarily, children have in many cases no or only delayed access to effective and safe therapies. Therefore, drug therapy for children and drug safety are currently being critically examined throughout Europe and measures for optimization are being developed. The basis for this is the Children's Medicines Regulation, which has been in force throughout the EU since January 2007.
Further information:
Press documents "Safe medicines for children ".
Folder: well informed! Safe Medicines for Children
