Call for pharmacist-only medicines category
Increasing complexity and the potential risks of some new over-the-counter medicines calls for consideration of a new category of medicines, “pharmacist-only” medicines, conference participants heard this week.
This was the opinion of Terry Maguire, vice-chairman of PharmacyHealthLink,
who said that simvastatin should be considered as the first in a new
class of medicines. He said that the specific involvement of a pharmacist
is essential to ensure adequate patient monitoring and to avoid the development
of rhabdomyolysis.
Simvastatin should have been one of the first pharmacist-only medicines,
he said, “and for many pharmacists it will be, as Levonelle was.”
Dr Maguire said that this would not necessarily require new regulations,
but could be created by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society through its
ethical framework.
David Reissner, of Charles Russell solicitors pointed out that in effect
pharmacist-only medicines already exist, since the Society holds the
view that certain medicines liable to abuse, such as codeine linctus,
should only be supplied under the supervision of a pharmacist, regardless
of their legal category. He suggested that the Society could produce
guidance for pharmacist-only medicines in the same way that it does for
these products.
Dr Maguire and Mr Reissner were speaking at UniChem’s convention
in South Africa.
Meetings, p538 |
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