On 29 September 2010 the Health and Consumers Committee (ENVI) of the European Parliament voted against allowing the pharmaceutical industry to print information on prescription only medicines in the press.

Advertising prescription medicines is banned throughout Europe, but the European Commission in the draft Directive on information to patients was willing to allow pharmaceutical companies to provide information in print while retaining the ban on broadcast media.

MEPs said they had now changed the emphasis of the proposal to focus on patients' rights to information rather than making the provision of information an option for pharmaceutical companies.

The public health committee amended the Directive to require Member States to provide citizens with objective and unbiased information on medicines, and said the public should be protected from unsolicited communication from the industry.

The public should be able to access details of what the medicine does, an assessment report on the medicinal product and details of how to prevent the diseases which it treats, according to the latest draft legislation.

Under the new proposal, Member States will have to set up dedicated websites and make information available in printed form.

Pharmaceutical companies will be allowed to provide the public with other "non-promotional information" on the environmental impact of the product or its effect on prices, although they will need permission from regulators to do this.

The new version of the legislation will now have to be adopted by the European Parliament in its full sitting.