The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 279 No 7468 p271-272
8 September 2007

Society summary

An occasional feature, prepared in the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Professional Standards Directorate, to highlight problems and inquiries currently being handled

Law and Ethics Bulletin, 2001 to present

Clarification of the “Controlled Drugs in hospital” section of ‘Medicines, ethics and practice: a guide for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, issue 31


Restriction on sale or supply of pseudoephedrine and ephedrine containing medicines

Clarification of the “Controlled Drugs in hospital” section of ‘Medicines, ethics and practice: a guide for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, issue 31

To clarify part (e) on page 27 of the MEP which states: “A prescription issued for the treatment of a patient in a hospital or care home may be written on the patient’s bed-card or casesheet. The prescription would need to fully comply with the prescription requirements of a Controlled Drug.”

A bed-card or casesheet can be used as an authorisation to administer a CD or as a prescription to make a supply of a CD. Where a bed-card or casesheet is used as an authorisation to administer a CD, it would not need to comply with the full prescription requirements for a controlled drug.

However, it would need to be clear to ensure the safe and accurate administration of the medicine to the patient. Where a bed-card or casesheet is used as an authorisation to supply a CD to a patient it would need to fully comply with the prescription requirements for a CD. Part (e), above, refers to this scenario.

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Restriction on sale or supply of pseudoephedrine and ephedrine containing medicines

Pharmacists are advised that they should, with immediate effect, ensure that sales of any pseudoephedrine- and ephedrine-containing medicines are restricted to one pack per sale.

Adequate procedures should be in place to prevent multiple pack sales and all staff involved in the sale or supply of these products should also be appropriately trained.

In January 2007, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society issued advice to pharmacists highlighting a link between methamphetamine and cold remedies (PDF 70K). It was highlighted that methamphetamine can be synthesised relatively easily using everyday equipment and commonly available ingredients, including over-the-counter cold remedies.

Pharmacists were asked to be alert to unusual requests for any items or products containing these ingredients and advised that requests for inappropriately large quantities of such products should be treated with caution.

This updated advice concerning sales restrictions reflects recommendations made by the Commission on Human Medicines (CHM) following consultation MLX 337 which proposed to restrict the availability of medicines containing ephedrine and pseudoephedrine.

The CHM has advised that a number of controls should be put in place, full details of which can be found online

Further guidance will be provided once the implications of the CHM advice have been fully considered.