The government has today (4 March) introduced legislation to
modernise the Veterinary Medicines Regulations and maintain the
UK as an attractive place to develop and market veterinary
medicines.
The Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013 set out the controls on
the marketing, manufacture, distribution, possession, and
administration of veterinary medicines and medicated feed. They
are a critical tool to help protect animal health, public health
and the environment.
The legislation will implement the plans set out in the recently
published government
response to last year’s public consultation, which
received widespread support from the veterinary medicines sector.
The new regulations seek to reduce regulatory burden
and facilitate the submission of one marketing authorisation
application dossier to enable common packaging to be used
across the UK.
Other changes include the introduction of measures to help tackle
antimicrobial resistance by increasing restrictions on the use of
antibiotics and antibiotics administered via feed.
Abi Seager, Veterinary Medicine Directorate Chief
Executive Officer, said:
“I am delighted that this much-anticipated legislation has been
brought to Parliament.
“I would like to thank for his input, and our
stakeholders for helping to shape our thinking, both in responses
to our consultation and through other contributions. We eagerly
await parliamentarians discussing our proposals, and we hope they
support these much-needed changes.”
The new regulations build upon wider work on antimicrobial
resistance outlined in the UK’s
20-year vision to contain and control antimicrobial resistance by
2040, delivered through the UK’s 5-year National Action
Plan for AMR.
The recent UK-Veterinary Antimicrobial
Resistance and Sales Surveillance (VARSS) Report showed
that sales of antibiotics for use in food-producing animals fell
by nearly 10% in the last year and have fallen by 59% since 2014.
