Various excuses have been put forward both by the pharmaceutical industry and by medicine licensing authorities. This has resulted in approximately 50 per cent of medicines used in children never having been given an appropriate paediatric licence, yet it is known that adverse drug reactions and other side-effects are greater when the medicine used does not have a licence.
The news that new measures have been proposed through the European Commission ensuring that medicines are fully tested in children as well as in adults is most welcome (Children Now, 6-12 October).
Previously, children have been treated as second-class citizens in this respect, the onus being on the doctor prescribing the untried medicine and hoping all will be well.
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