Many of the medicines that children take have never been properly tested on them to make sure they are safe and effective. Doctors often have to make do with drugs designed for adults and just scale down the dose. This can lead to dosing errors, and adverse events can occur as children’s bodies handle some medicines differently to adults.

Graham Easton shows how European legislation is about to change this, and the World Health Organisation is galvanising its efforts to ensure that the new laws also benefit children in the developing world, where child-friendly medicines are desperately needed.

Children are at last finding their voice in the corridors of big pharma, and any medicine that could benefit children will have to be properly tested and designed with children in mind. Show less