This week the NPA has submitted evidence to the All Party Parliamentary Inquiry on proposals to restrict the availability of medicines containing ephedrine and pseudoephedrine. The submission sets out why the Association believes the proposed move to prescription only status for the commonly used decongestant both is a disproportionate response and possibly counter productive to combating concerns about pharmacy supplies of pseudoephedrine being used for illicit purposes.
In an eight point response the NPA tackles one by one the concerns of regulators and Government by introducing an evidenced based approach to the restriction of pseudoephedrine supply. The NPA has alerted the inquiry to the facts about methylamphetamine production that include:
· There is currently little evidence of widespread methylamphetamine manufacture or use in the UK
· Concerns appear to be based on reports from other countries such as the US and Australia where pseudoephedrine was previously available for self selection by customers in non-pharmacy outlets, in large pack sizes of 250 tablets (not in blister strips as in the UK) and in higher strengths than in the UK
· Even with this wide availability in the US only 10% of illicit methylamphetamine was produced from OTC medicines and of this the majority was acquired by theft
· The US have responded by implementing pharmacy only sale similar to the restrictions we have in the UK
· Evidence from the US shows that even when pseudoephedrine was restricted to pharmacy sale the amount of methylamphetamine available on the street remained the same, proving that the major source of pseudoephedrine was not from non-prescription medicines.
The wider implications of restricting access of pseudoephedrine include
· Reclassification will severely restrict consumer access to these safe, effective medicines
· Many of the affected products are included on the "blacklist" and are therefore not eligible for supply on NHS prescription
· Reclassification will inevitably increase both GP workloads and NHS costs as patients will be forced to see their doctor to obtain products on prescription that were previously available for them to purchase from the pharmacy.
The NPA believes more appropriate response would be:
· Pack sizes could be reduced to contain a maximum of 720mg (this is sufficient for short-term treatment of symptoms)
· Pharmacists could limit sales to one pack per patient
· The NPA would support additional professional guidance from the RPSGB for pharmacists and their staff to ensure the sale of these products is closely monitored and controlled.
ENDS
