Drugs only to be prescribed by a specialist. Those drugs:
- Requiring long-term specialist monitoring of efficacy
- Requiring long-term specialist monitoring of toxicity (either because of difficulty in recognising side effects or high cost/availability of investigations to identify toxicity)
- Designated as ‘hospital only’ by product licence, by DOH or by the company.
- That are new or a new indication for an existing drug that needs evaluation to be undertaken to establish the place in therapy, with a recommendation that a formal review process be undertaken
- That are hospital initiated unlicensed or clinical trial materials
- That are not licensed for any indication in the UK
Prescribing in Children
General practitioners may prescribe unlicensed medicines (e.g. liquid formulations prepared by a “Specials Manufacturer”) or licensed medicines for unlicensed uses (“off-label”) in children. Prescribing should follow specialist advice and/or indications and doses recommended in the BNF for children. Please refer to current edition of BNF for children (http://www.bnfc.org/) for further information and guidance.