Over Counter Prescription Drug Plan Slammed

Government plans to make certain prescription-only drugs for common problems available over the counter (OTC) have overwhelmingly been given the thumbs down by healthcare professionals, reveals a survey in the influential Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin.

The prevailing view among readers, many of whom are healthcare professionals working in primary care, is that drug companies, rather than patients, have most to gain from proposed switches to OTC availability.

DTB readers were quizzed about plans being considered by the drugs regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), to make trimethoprim and tamsulosin (Flomax) available over the counter with most of the 251 survey respondents to have disagreed with the plans.

Almost two thirds (64.5%) felt the move to make trimethoprim available in pharmacies without prescription was a bad idea. And over half (58.2%) of all respondents cited a consequent increase in antibiotic resistance as their main concern.

Furthermore, just over half (52.2%) felt that patients might misdiagnose their symptoms, while a similar proportion (51%) thought that OTC availability might encourage patients to overuse or misuse the drug.

In both cases, more respondents felt that the needs and wishes of drug companies, rather than those of the public and the NHS, would have the most sway on whether the switch happened.

The results also show that respondents are also less than impressed with the reclassification of the 10 mg dose of the cholesterol-lowering statin drug simvastatin to OTC availability.

This switch, which happened in 2004, was hailed by Government and the regulator as promoting much wider access to a safe and effective drug that would help prevent serious heart disease among people at risk.

And almost six out of 10 (57.0%) said the move was unlikely to have substantially reduced the number of heart attacks and deaths from coronary heart disease in the general population.

Commenting on the survey results, Dr Ike Iheanacho, editor of DTB, said: "The survey indicates major concerns about proposals to make certain medicines available without prescription.

"Healthcare professionals seem largely unconvinced that these changes would provide net benefits to patients. They are also sceptical about the motives underlying the proposed switches.

"We believe that the regulator must take such worries seriously."

(BMcC/JM)