What are Medicine Guides?
How are Medicine Guides created?
How are Medicine Guides funded?
Who owns the Medicine Guides website?
What are Medicine Guides [Top 
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Medicine Guides are an online medicines information resource for patients and the general public in the UK. Medicine Guides give up to date, reliable and understandable information about medicines. They can help you to:
- make informed decisions about your health and health care
- be more involved in decisions about your treatment, in partnership with your healthcare professionals
- understand how best to use and take your medicine
Information about medicines on the Medicine Guides website links to information about conditions on the NHS Choices website. NHS Choices is the NHS' online portal for patients and the general public.
How are Medicine Guides created? [Top
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An independent team of pharmacists author Medicine Guides from the information contained in a medicine's Summary of Product Characteristics (SPC). This is a document which is checked and approved by the UK or European government agencies which license medicines. These agencies are the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMEA).
SPCs are written using medical terms. The Medicine Guide authors write Medicine Guides in language which is useful for and understandable to patients. This is done using a set of guidelines which has been approved by the Medicines Information Project Board.
The Medicines Information Project Board is a unique collaboration of groups with a shared vision to provide good quality, reliable medicines information for patients. The Board, which includes members from the Department of Health, the NHS, the pharmaceutical industry regulator, the pharmaceutical industry, and patient and professional groups, is responsible for overseeing the development of Medicine Guides (more about who's represented on the Medicine Information Project Board).
This process ensures that Medicine Guides are independent, unbiased and non promotional.
All images of medicines and devices displayed on the Medicine Guides website are provides by TICTAC, the UK's leading drug identification database.
How are Medicine Guides funded? [Top
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Medicine Guides are searchable by both brand and generic name. If a Medicine Guide uses the brand name, this means that the pharmaceutical company has paid for that Medicine Guide to be created. Where a Medicine Guide uses the generic name, there is no pharmaceutical company directly involved in funding that Guide. A branded Medicine Guide is as accurate and as high quality as a generic guide (more about the pharmaceutical companies involved in Medicine Guides).
Who owns the Medicine Guides website? [Top
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The Medicine Guides website is managed and owned by Datapharm Communications Limited, known as Datapharm. Datapharm is an independent, not-for-profit company that works with the NHS, pharmaceutical companies, and other healthcare organisations to provide high quality information about medicines (more about Datapharm).
Who's represented on the Medicines Information Project Board? [Top
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The Medicines Information Project Board includes members from:
- Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI)
- Association of Nurse Prescribers
- Department of Health
- Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)
- National Pharmacy Association (NPA)
- National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA)
- NHS Direct
- NHS Choices
- Patient groups
- Proprietary Association of Great Britain (PAGB)
- Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB)
- Royal College of General Practitioners
- UK Medicines Information (UKMi)
- University of Leeds
The pharmaceutical companies involved in Medicine Guides [Top
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The following pharmaceutical companies provide financial support. If you are a pharmaceutical company and would like information about getting involved, please contact us.
- Abbott Laboratories Limited
- Allen & Hanburys (GlaxoSmithKline UK)
- Amgen Ltd
- AstraZeneca
- Boehringer Ingelheim Ltd
- Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals
- Celgene
- Discovery Pharmaceuticals
- Eisai Ltd
- Eli Lilly & Company Ltd
- Exelgyn Laboratories
- Gilead Sciences
- GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare (GlaxoSmithKline UK)
- GlaxoSmithKline
- Ipsen Ltd
- Janssen-Cilag Ltd
- LEO Laboratories Ltd
- Merck Sharp & Dohme Ltd
- MSD-SP Ltd (Merck Sharp & Dohme Limited)
- Norgine Ltd
- Novartis Consumer Health
- Novartis Pharmaceuticals UK Ltd
- Novartis Vaccines (Novartis Pharmaceuticals UK Ltd)
- Novo Nordisk Ltd
- Organon Laboratories Ltd
- Orion Pharma (UK) Ltd
- Pfizer Ltd
- Pharmacia Ltd (Pfizer Limited)
- Pierre Fabre Ltd
- Profile Pharma Ltd
- ProStrakan
- Recordati Pharmaceuticals Ltd
- Roche Products Ltd
- Takeda UK Ltd
- Wyeth Pharmaceuticals
About Datapharm Communications [Top
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Datapharm is a leading provider of online information about prescribed medicines.
Our mission is to improve public health and safety by providing information about medicines to healthcare professionals, patients and the general public which is accurate, up to date and from a trusted source.
We are a not for profit company funded by about 150 UK pharmaceutical companies. These companies pay us to publish their Summaries of Product Characteristics (SPCs) and Patient Information Leaflets (PILs) on the electronic Medicines Compendium (eMC) website emc.medicines.org.uk. All the SPCs and PILs have been checked and approved by the UK or European medicines licensing authority - the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) or the European Medicines Agency (EMEA).
Our online medicines information services:
Datapharm was formed in 1977 and is an independent, not for profit company.
We are a company limited by guarantee, registered in England & Wales - registered number 1317421. Our registered office is Stocks House, 9 North Street, Leatherhead, Surrey, England KT22 7AX.