Good to know
Glossary:
Names, with whom we can find being a patient are medicines on prescription Rx, medicines, OTC medical products and supplements of diet. It is important to you to know, what is behind these names and what is exact difference between them!
Rx - All medicines given on prescription to patient by doctor. Repayment for them can be partial and as a result of repayment level of National Health Fund or they are products of full price to patient.
OTC - these in turn are all medicines, which we can receive in pharmacy without prescription. Decisions about usage of such medicines very often take patient himself, after advice from pharmacist.
Supplements of diet - released without prescription; they are not medicines and they can not possess properties of medicinal specimen! Using supplement of diet you have never the certainty about its effectiveness and safety. In Poland The Main Sanitary Inspectorate allow them to launch.
The European Union (EU) monitor in special way selected medicines. These medicines are marked by black triangle 
on the bottom of leaflet included in package and also in Summary of Medicinal Product (the information for health professionals).
That marking draws attention to the medicine, which come under stricter control
That marking is used in all countries of UE from the autumn 2013 in order to easier and faster identification monitored products. It will however not appear on package of medicine.
Which medicines come under special supervision?
- Medicines which contains new active substance, approved by UE after 01.01.2011y
- Biological products eq. vaccines or other derived from blood plasma
- After conditional launching products to pharmaceutical market
- The producer has to carry out more research to provide accurate information about medicine
Thanks to marking by black triangle, there is easier a faster identification of product. Patients and health professionals reporting adverse drug reaction in relation to such marked medicines cause, that new information can be judged quickly. Thanks to that intervention European authorities can take decisions or approve the medicine based on an evaluation of the benefit and risk for the patient.
