The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 272 No 7303 p728
12 June 2004

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Association of the European Self-Medication Industry: reports (more)

Self-medication should be the rule, not the exception

All medicines should be available over the counter unless there are good reasons to restrict them to prescription supply, according to the president of the International Alliance of Patients' Organizations.

Albert van der Zeijden told the AESGP meeting last week that a central principle of IAPO is that people should be free to make their own health choices.

“This freedom of choice means that all medicines should be available as self-care medicines,” he said. “The only acceptable restriction is that my freedom should not be a threat to the freedom of choice of other citizens.” This meant that Mr van der Zeijden accepted that antibiotics should not be freely available because of the public health risk that this posed.

He also accepted that new medicines should be restricted to prescription supply for three to five years, while they were fully assessed. After that, they should be available for self-medication.

Mr van der Zeijden went on to say that he is looking to a future of assisted health care, in which health professionals help people to make their own health choices, but do not control them. He said that pharmacists should play a more active role in supporting patients.

“At present, the atmosphere in many pharmacies does not encourage people to ask questions. Communication with customers has to become a much more prominent part of the education of pharmacists,” he said.

The Journal’s attendance at the Association of the European Self-Medication Industry annual meeting in Madrid from 2 to 4 June was made possible by the Proprietary Association of Great Britain