INFORMATION FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONALS

Home  |  Consumers  |  Health Professionals  |  Regulatory  |  Other  |  Hot Topics  |  Search

• Prescriber Update Articles
• Medicine Data Sheets
• Consumer Medicine Information
• Classification of Medicines
• Unapproved Medicines
• Medicines Monitoring
• Adverse Reaction Reporting
• Medicines Adverse Reactions Committee (MARC)
• Medicine Supply Issues
• Medical Devices
• Pharmacy Licences
• Reporting a Defect
• Regulatory Issues
• Guidance for Natural Health Practitioners
• Other Web Resources

Data Sheets

Search by ingredient, trade name or company To find a data sheet: enter the active ingredient (generic name) or medicine's trade (brand) name or company (sponsor) name in the "Search for" field. You do not need to enter the whole name if you are unsure of the correct spelling. Select the type of search in the "In" field, then click on "Search". Search for:   This will search for anything starting with the letters entered above. To find the letters in any part of the field enter "%" as the first character. In: Trade name Ingredient name Sponsor name    OR Alphabetical listing of data sheets - click here

Data sheets contain detailed prescribing information on a specific medicine. Pharmaceutical companies are required to prepare data sheets for all prescription medicines and restricted (pharmacist only) medicines in accordance with the Medicines Regulations 1984 and regulatory guidelines published by Medsafe.  Medsafe approves each data sheet on the basis of the company declaring that the data sheet conforms with the specified requirements and accurately reflects the product approved for distribution in New Zealand.  Data sheets are updated as required to include newly approved dose forms, strengths or indications, or to update warnings, adverse effects, contra-indications etc. as new safety information becomes available. Data sheets electronically submitted to Medsafe are available on this web site.   For copies of data sheets not currently on this site, contact the pharmaceutical company directly. Any queries relating to information contained in a data sheet should be directed to the pharmaceutical company named as the sponsor in the data sheet.

Data sheets are published on the Medsafe website in Portable Document Format (PDF).  To read a PDF you need Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer.  You can download the latest free version of Adobe Acrobat Reader from the Adobe website.

Note for Prescribers: The authority to prescribe medicines is controlled by the Medicines Act 1981. However, such prescribing needs to be in conformance with the Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers' Rights 1996. The patient has the right to treatment meeting appropriate ethical and professional standards, and the patient needs to be fully informed with frank discussion of risk/benefit issues relating to medicine efficacy and safety when used in the treatment regimen proposed. Information about the unapproved ('off-label') use of medicines is given in a Prescriber Update article.

Commercial Use (i.e. the on-selling) of the data sheets available on the Medsafe web site requires permission to be sought and obtained from the sponsors (pharmaceutical companies) of the medicines concerned.