How to Report a Side Effect in the UK, Canada, Australia and the EU

How to read this page

This page names the schemes and says what each official page we read says. It does not give phone numbers or step-by-step forms, because those change; use the official site. Many schemes are written for medicines. Whether a given herbal or supplement product is accepted is something the pages we read often do not say, so we say so below. In an emergency in the US call 911; for poisoning, Poison Help is 1-800-222-1222. Other countries have their own numbers: see Poison help by country.

United Kingdom: Yellow Card

The Yellow Card scheme is run by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). [1] The page we read says anyone can report an issue with a medicine, vaccine or medical device. [1] Its list of product types did not name herbal or dietary supplements, so check the Yellow Card site for your product. It says reports help the MHRA identify new safety issues as early as possible, and that it cannot provide medical advice; it suggests speaking to a doctor or pharmacist if you are worried. [1]

Canada: Health Canada

Health Canada's reporting page says anyone can report a side effect to a health or cannabis product. [2] It describes natural health products as naturally occurring substances and points to product-specific reporting pages. [2] We read this page through a fetch tool and did not follow the product pages, so we cannot describe the form.

European Union: through the national authority

EMA says it cannot accept side effect reports directly from patients. It recommends reporting suspected side effects to the national competent authority, by talking to a healthcare professional or in some cases directly through online forms or by telephone. [3] It says to seek advice from a doctor or pharmacist about a side effect. [3] These reports are used to continuously monitor the safety of medicines on the market. [3] The EMA page concerns medicines; food supplements and herbal products were not described in the text we read.

Australia

We could not open the Therapeutic Goods Administration's reporting pages this session, so we make no statement about how Australia handles reports. Ask a pharmacist or look for the national regulator's consumer reporting page.

Other countries

We did not read official reporting pages for other countries. Ask a pharmacist or your national health authority.

Related pages

For the United States, see US reporting steps. For what to do first, see What to do after a reaction and Side effects and reporting.