The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 278 No 7445 p368
31 March 2007

This article
Reprint   Photocopy

PDF 50K, Acrobat Reader

• Pseudoephedrine (3)
• Dispensing
• Remote supervision
• White Paper (3)
• Product promotion
• Children's medicines

Letters to the Editor

Children's medicines

A spoonful of misleading information

From Dr C. L. C. Tuleu, MRPharmS

On 10 March, the Press Association released nationally a not-so-groundbreaking article stating that additives are present in some children’s medicines which also stated that those additives were banned in food and drinks for children under three years of age. The article was based on a report from the UK Food Commission, which surveyed over-the-counter paediatric medicines for its Food Magazine. Four teething gels and 36 oral liquids were checked for their content of dyes, preservatives, sweeteners, flavouring agents and other excipients.

The information given in the article was partial, selective and superficial, if not inaccurate. The article claimed that there was “plenty of colouring” used when only four out of 41 medicines contained azo dyes. Despite the long fight and lobbying to produce sugar-free medicines for children, the article incriminated bulk polyol sweeteners and intense artificial sweeteners. Moreover, the authors of the survey did not seem to be able to recognise in the list of excipients similar parabens when they were called by their abridged chemical names. The article only listed the presence of chloroform as “other excipients” in two medicines when actually only one contained some. The authors failed to mention other types of co-solvents such as alcohol or other polyols (glycerol, propylene glycol) which were present in many more preparations. It was also not emphasised that almost 50 per cent of the preparations listed were not indicated for children under one year of age as mentioned on the label.

As already mentioned by Helen Darracott from the Propriety Association of Great Britain in last week’s PJ news report (17 March, p302), those medicines are on the market because they have been risk assessed by legal authorities and the role that excipients play in their formulation outweighs their potential toxicity — toxicity which mainly occurs by acute overdosing or cumulative or chronic exposure.

Without taking everything for granted, there is no need to alarm the public unnecessarily. As pharmacists, we have been trained to assess the composition of formulations and it is our responsibility to do so when it comes to advising parents on the choice of over-the-counter medicines for their children. It is an extremely important interface we have with the public that we should nurture to keep raising the profile of our profession.

Catherine Tuleu
London

Send your letter to The Editor

Previous Topic (Product promotion)