A medicinal product is defined in the European Union (cf. Dir 2001/83/EC) as any substance or combination of substances presented for treating or preventing disease in human beings. Any substance or combination of substances which may be administered to human beings with a view to making a medical diagnosis or to restoring, correcting or modifying physiological functions in human beings is likewise considered a medicinal product. For further info see medication and drug.
This definition requires updating as follows because Dir 2001/83/EC was amended by Directive 2004/27/EC as follows:
'Medicinal product:
(a) Any substance or combination of substances presented as having properties for treating or preventing disease in human beings; or
(b) Any substance or combination of substances which may be used in or administered to human beings either with a view to restoring, correcting or modifying physiological functions by exerting a pharmacological, immunological or metabolic action, or to making a medical diagnosis.’
A medicinal product has to be distinguished from medical devices, cosmetics and food products.
Famous quotes containing the words medicinal and/or product:
“by Spoon Rivergathering many a shell,
And many a flower and medicinal weed
Shouting to the wooded hills, singing to the green valleys.
At ninety-six I had lived enough, that is all,
And passed to a sweet repose.”
—Edgar Lee Masters (18691950)
“The product of mental laborsciencealways stands far below its value, because the labor-time necessary to reproduce it has no relation at all to the labor-time required for its original production.”
—Karl Marx (18181883)