About Veterinary Medicines
As a horse owner, you’ll want to be sure that the medicines you’re giving your horse are safe, effective and legal. Buying your veterinary medicines from us, a VMD-accredited internet retailer, you can be sure that:
- we are a UK-based retailer and authorised to sell veterinary medicines
- we only supply veterinary medicines that are authorised in the UK, meaning they’re proven to be safe and effective when used as directed.
Please see our about us section to find out all about us; https://www.equineessentialsdirect.co.uk/about-us
We are approved by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) for the retail supply of POM-VPS and NFA-VPS veterinary medicines by a suitably qualified person (SQP). Our premises approval number is 2030134. You can check our approval on the VMD’s website (http://www.vmd.defra.gov.uk/registers/sqpretailers.aspx) or by contacting the VMD directly.
Registered Qualified Person
Our registered qualified person with responsibility for the supply of veterinary medicines classified as POM-VPS/ NFA-VPS is Laura Dunn - J-SQP. You can verify that Laura Dunn is a SQP by checking the AMTRA’s list of SQPs (http://www.vmd.defra.gov.uk/registers/sqpregister.aspx)
For more details about SQPs, click here: http://www.amtra.org.uk/sqp.html
Our registered business address
The owners of the business is Laura Dunn and Dawn Francis:
Equine Essentials Direct
Unit 2 Fairthorpe
Denham Green Lane
Denham
Bucks
UB9 5LQ
Tel: 01494 872882
Email: info@equineessentialsdirect.co.uk
Company No. 07293376
VAT No. 117 5384 13
The Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD):
The VMD is the UK government agency responsible for the controls on veterinary medicines in the UK, including their authorisation, manufacture and supply.
The Accredited Internet Retailer Scheme (AIRS)
In 2012 the VMD set up the Accredited Internet Retailer Scheme (AIRS) in response to the public’s concerns about buying veterinary medicines online. We are accredited under the Scheme. You can learn more about the work of the VMD and AIRS by going to the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/accredited-internet-retailer-scheme-airs
Authorisation and classification of veterinary medicines:
Any product in the UK that makes a veterinary medicinal claim must be authorised. You can tell if a veterinary medicine is authorised as it will include English language labelling that it’s important that you read and understand. The label will include a unique UK marketing authorisation number, which will appear in one of the following formats:
- Vm 04321/4001
- Vh 05467/4007
- EU/1/99/099/001-001
Alternatively, the product may include a statement "This veterinary medicine is marketed in accordance with Schedule 6 of the Veterinary Medicines Regulations - Exemptions for small pet animals" or similar on the label and packaging.
There are four classifications of authorised veterinary medicines:
- Prescription-only Medicine – Veterinarian (abbreviated to POM-V)
- Prescription-only Medicine – Veterinarian, Pharmacist, Suitably Qualified Person (SQP) (abbreviated to POM-VPS)
- Non-Food Animal – Veterinarian, Pharmacist, Suitably Qualified Person (SQP) (abbreviated to NFA-VPS)
- Authorised Veterinary Medicine – General Sales List (abbreviated to AVM-GSL)
You can use the VMD’s Product Information Database to check if a product is authorised and its classification, or to search for a UK-authorised veterinary medicine. The search facility allows you to search by trade name, active substance, species, legal classification and many other options. Each product has a Summary of Product Characteristics (SPCs) that tells you all about the medicine.
For more information visit the VMD’s Product Information Database here: http://www.vmd.defra.gov.uk/ProductInformationDatabase/
Prescription misuse
It is an offence to:
- Alter a prescription issued by a vet, pharmacist or SQP e.g.
- Fraudulently produce a prescription e.g.
- change the date the prescription was signed
- change the quantity of the product
- include additional medicines
- forge a prescription
- forge the signature of a vet, pharmacist or SQP
- send the same prescription to multiple retailers
Our RQP carefully checks all prescriptions and will report suspected prescription misuse to the VMD or the police.
What to do if your horse suffers an adverse reaction:
No medicine is risk free and all medicines have the potential to cause adverse effects. Some of the adverse effects are known about and these are explained in the product’s SPC.
Others that may only rarely occur or are specific for certain breeds or groups of animals may only be seen when the products are used more widely.
If you suspect that you or your animal has had an adverse reaction to a veterinary medicine, or you think the medicine hasn’t worked as it should have done, report it to the VMD using the form available via the link below: https://www.vmd.defra.gov.uk/adversereactionreporting/
Complaints about veterinary medicines:
If you have a complaint about the quality of a veterinary medicine please contact us in the first instance. You can find our complaints policy in our Terms & Conditions https://www.equineessentialsdirect.co.uk/terms-and-conditions
However, if you feel that we haven’t resolved your complaint satisfactorily, you can contact the VMD – https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/veterinary-medicines-directorate/about/complaints-procedure
Please note that the VMD will only consider complaints about veterinary medicines supplied, not about service, delivery, cost or non-medicinal products.