Leaflets inside medicine boxes must be improved so they can be easily read and not just a "laundry list" of potential harms, says the Academy of Medical Sciences.

Its new report is calling for the "impenetrable" patient information leaflets to be rewritten to show a better sense of the benefits of the drugs and not simply to list the risks.

The Academy also referenced a survey of 2,000 Britons which found that because scientific evidence had been poorly explained, two thirds of people trusted their friends and family about the effects of medicines over medical research.

As well as improving the medicine leaflets the recommendations made in the report included developing the NHS Choices website as a "repository of reliable, easy to understand, evidence", report chairman Professor Sir John Tooke said.

The Academy has also launched a set of questions that members of the public can can take the list to their doctor to help them make better informed decisions about whether to take a medicine.

Sir John said: "We all need medicines at some point in our life yet the decision as to whether to use a drug or not can be a confusing one.

"It is our view that unless we improve the use of scientific evidence to judge the potential harms and benefits of medicines, both established and new, patients will not reap the full advantage of scientific advance."

He added: "The one piece of information that patients are guaranteed to receive - the patient information leaflet - does not provide a balance appraisal of the benefits and harms of medicines and was described in our public dialogue as being 'impenetrable' and 'unreadable'.

"As far as patient information leaflets are concerned there is currently an obligation for industry to expose the risks, which is why they predominate this laundry list of side effects.

Meanwhile the public poll, which also saw more than 1,000 GPs surveyed, found that 67% of British adults and 82% of GPs believed that clinical trial research funded by the pharmaceutical industry was often biased to produce a positive outcome.