The State Duma adopted in the third reading a bill on ensuring control over the prescription and use of medicines in veterinary practice, TASS reports.
The document was developed in pursuance of the action plan for 2019-2024 for the implementation of the Strategy for Preventing the Spread of Antimicrobial Resistance in the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030. Amendments are made to the laws “On Veterinary Medicine” and “On the Circulation of Medicines”.
The bill prohibits adding antimicrobials to feed in the absence of a request or prescription, as well as selling such feed without a record of approval. In addition, the document also establishes the categories of entities that need a pharmaceutical license to add antimicrobials to feeds at the production stage. In the absence of a pharmaceutical license and a prescription, the sale of such feeds is prohibited.
The Ministry of Agriculture will receive the authority to approve the list of medicines for veterinary use, including antimicrobials that are sold under prescriptions and requests.
The initiative was submitted to the State Duma by the government in August. The document provides that organizations and individual entrepreneurs who keep and breed animals will apply for the issue of requests for the sale of human use medicines for veterinary use. A prescription for veterinary use of a human medicinal product can be issued with the use of the federal state veterinary information system.
The document comes into force on March 1, 2023.