This article appeared in the Campaign's Secrets newspaper in August 1993.

The Medicines Information Bill, as amended during its Committee stage, would have required the disclosure of:

• a summary and evaluation of the safety and other information considered by the authorities which licence human and veterinary medicines when granting, suspending or varying a licence

• the advice of official bodies such as the Committee on the Safety of Medicines and the Veterinary Products Committee

• inspection reports on pharmaceutical plants showing if they meet hygiene and quality control standards

• a summary of adverse drug reactions - suspected side effects reported by doctors.

The identity of any patient or any doctor reporting side effects would be confidential. So would commercially valuable information about a manufacturing process or a product under development. Section 118(1) of the Medicines Act 1968 - the secrecy clause - would be narrowed so that it only applied to genuine commercial secrets.