Formulations
At present there is a dependence on unlicensed and off label drug medicines for children and young people (reported as 25% in children and up to 65% in neonates) (Conroy et al 2000). The lack of evidence to date is due to a limited number of clinical trials investigating medicine use in children, poorly designed research, limited multi-centre studies and ethical concerns over conducting research with children. Due to small sample sizes, it has not previously been profitable for pharmaceutical companies to research medicines for children.
Many of the medicines come in a form, which is not always suitable for some children e.g. tablets. Three of the six local research networks have been given an additional remit of formulations work, including Cheshire , Merseyside and North Wales . This aims to provide medicines in a safe way which are in an appropriate form for children.
