# The Supply of Relevant Veterinary Medicinal Products Order 2005, Note: Explanatory note


(This note is not part of the Order)
This Order sets out remedies in relation to certain adverse effects on the public interest specified in the Competition Commission report entitled “Veterinary Medicines: A report on the supply within the United Kingdom of prescription-only veterinary medicines” published in April 2003 (Cm. 5781). Copies of the report may be obtained from The Stationery Office.
The “Guide to Professional Conduct” produced by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons regulates the professional conduct of veterinary surgeons including the supply of medicines to their clients.
Article 3 prevents a veterinary surgeon from charging a fee for giving a prescription for a period of 3 years from the coming into force of this Order, although during this time a veterinary surgeon is permitted to recover from his clients the costs he incurs in prescribing provided he does so in a way that does not discriminate between clients to whom he gives a prescription and those to whom he does not.
Article 4 requires a manufacturer of relevant veterinary medicinal products to notify price information directly to those veterinary surgeons or pharmacists to whom it has either directly supplied relevant veterinary medicinal products or given or agreed a discount or rebate. The price information is to be supplied every three months and consists of the net price (taking into account discounts and rebates).
Article 5 requires a manufacturer, on written request, to notify in writing a veterinary surgeon or pharmacist of the net price at which the manufacturer would be willing to supply directly or via a wholesaler a relevant veterinary medicinal product in the next three months.
Article 6 makes it unlawful for the manufacturers and wholesalers of a relevant veterinary medicinal product to discriminate between veterinary surgeons and pharmacists in the prices they charge, the discounts and rebates they offer and the other terms and conditions upon which they supply a relevant veterinary medicinal product.
Article 7 requires specified persons to provide the OFT on request with information that they hold or control and the OFT requires for the purpose of monitoring compliance with this Order.
Article 8 gives the Secretary of State powers to give directions in order to secure compliance with this Order.
A full regulatory impact assessment of the effect that this Order will have on the costs of business has been prepared and is available from the Consumer and Competition Policy Directorate , Department of Trade and Industry, 1 Victoria Street, London SWIH OET and can also be found at http://www.dti.gov.uk/ccp/topics2/pdf2/pomccria.pdf.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005/2751/note (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/supply-of-relevant-veterinary-medicinal-products-order-2005/note/enacted
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.