A medication or medicine is a drug taken to cure and/or
ameliorate any symptoms of an illness or medical condition, or may be used
as preventive medicine that has future benefits but does not
treat any existing or pre-existing diseases or symptoms.
Dispensing of
medication is often regulated by governments into three categories—over-the-counter (OTC) medications, which are available
in pharmacies and supermarkets without special
restrictions, behind-the-counter (BTC),
which are dispensed by a pharmacist without needing a doctor's
prescription, and prescription only medicines (POM), which must be prescribed by a
licensed medical professional, usually a physician
In the United
Kingdom, BTC medicines are called pharmacy medicines which can only be sold in registered
pharmacies, by or under the supervision of a pharmacist. These medications are
designated by the letter P on the label. The range of medicines available
without a prescription varies from country to country.
Medications are
typically produced by pharmaceutical companies and are often patented to give the developer exclusive rights
to produce them. Those that are not patented (or with expired patents) are
called generic drugs since they can be produced by other
companies without restrictions or licenses from the patent holder.
No comments:
Post a Comment