EMA: Preventing medication errors in the European Union

The European Medicines Agency (EMA), on behalf of the European Union (EU) Regulatory Network, has released two draft good practice guides that aim to improve the reporting, evaluation and prevention of medication errors by regulatory authorities and pharmaceutical industry throughout the EU. The deadline for stakeholders to send their comments to EMA is 14 June 2015. Medication errors are unintended mistakes in the prescribing, dispensing and administration of a medicine that could cause harm to a patient. They are the most common preventable cause of undesired harmful effects (adverse events) in medication practice and present a major public health burden.