# The Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2005, Paragraph 2: Administration under the cascade


(1) If there is no authorised veterinary medicinal product in the United Kingdom for a condition the veterinary surgeon responsible for the animal may, to avoid unacceptable suffering, treat the animal concerned with the following (“the cascade”), cascaded in the following order—
(a) a veterinary medicinal product authorised in the United Kingdom for use with another animal species, or for another condition in the same species; or
(b) if and only if there is no such product that is suitable, either—
(i) a medicinal product authorised in the United Kingdom for human use; or
(ii) a veterinary medicinal product not authorised in the United Kingdom but authorised in another member State for use with any animal species (in the case of a food-producing animal, it must be a food-producing species); or
(c) if and only if there is no such product that is suitable, a veterinary medicinal product prepared extemporaneously by a pharmacist, a veterinary surgeon or a person holding a manufacturing authorisation authorising the manufacture of that type of product.
(2) In the case of a veterinary medicinal product imported from another member State, if the veterinary surgeon has not obtained a certificate from the Secretary of State under regulation 25(5) permitting him to import it, he must obtain a certificate from the Secretary of State before he administers it.
(3) For the purposes of this paragraph a food-producing animal includes an animal belonging to the equidae family unless it has been declared, in accordance with Commission Decisions 93/623/EEC (establishing the identification document (passport) accompanying registered equidae) and 2000/68/EC (amending Decision 93/623/EEC and establishing the identification of equidae for breeding and production), as not being intended for slaughter for human consumption.
(4) Any pharmacologically active substances included in a medicinal product administered to a food-producing animal under the cascade must be listed in Annex I, II or III to Council Regulation (EEC) No. 2377/90.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005/2745/schedule/4/paragraph/2 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/veterinary-medicines-regulations-2005/schedule-4/paragraph-2
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.