VMR reforms come into force
The changes follow a consultation last year which lead to some initial proposals being dropped.
The updated Veterinary Medicines Regulations (VMR) have come into force in Great Britain today (17 May 2024).
The amended regulations replace the previous 2013 regulatory framework and aim to ensure that the UK is an attractive place to develop and market veterinary medicines.
The new legislation introduces a large number of changes affecting a wide range of areas, including the development, marketing, supply, and prescription of veterinary medicines. The changes do not apply to Northern Ireland, where long-term issues over the supply of veterinary medicines are still to be solved following the UK leaving the EU.
The updated legislation has been welcomed by the National Office of Animal Heath (NOAH), which represents the UK animal health industry.
Dawn Howard, NOAH chief executive, said: “This new legislation presents an opportunity for the UK animal health sector to thrive, as the 2013 VMR regulatory framework was no longer fit for purpose and reforms to the regulations were well overdue.
“We would like to thank the UK veterinary medicines regulatory authority, the Veterinary Medicines Directorate, who put a tremendous amount of effort into drafting this new regulation and their openness in consulting all those who will be impacted by it to express their views.”
However, the legislation has received a more mixed response from the Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics, whose members include the Royal College of Physicians, Compassion in World Farming, and Friends of the Earth.
The new rules ban the routine use of antibiotics on farms and their use to compensate for poor standards of hygiene, animal husbandry and management practices. Prophylactic use has been restricted to “exceptional circumstances”. According to the campaign group, these changes do not go far enough.
Cóilín Nunan of the Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics said: “Some of the new rules on farm antibiotic use are welcome and long overdue. Unfortunately, the government has deliberately weakened the legislation, in comparison to the EU’s, and this will allow some poorly run farms to keep on feeding large groups of animals antibiotics, even when no disease is present.
“We are also concerned the ban on using antibiotics to compensate for inadequate animal husbandry and poor farm management practices may not be properly implemented.”
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Defra has published guidance for the vet sector ahead of a proposed UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary agreement.
