Sales Restriction Order: 6 types of cold medicines must be purchased on prescription

Why does the country restrict the sale of some cold medicines?

The supervision of some cold medicines has caused the relevant departments to scratch their heads.

On December 6th, the State Food and Drug Administration issued an announcement stating that the chlorine-reduced pseudoephedrine sustained-release tablets, compound pseudoephedrine hydrochloride sustained-release capsules, aminophenol-chlorinated pseudoephedrine sustained-release tablets, Namin pseudoephedrine capsules, and shoal pseudo The specifications of the Hemp Tablets and Compound Bromo pseudoephedrine sustained-release tablets were approved and released. According to the revised instructions, the six types of drugs changed from non-prescription drugs to prescription drugs.

As early as September 4 this year, the three departments of the State Food and Drug Administration, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Ministry of Health jointly issued a document to transfer compound preparations containing a unit dose of ephedrine over 30 mg from non-prescription drugs to prescription drugs.

A group of well-known brands of cold medicines have become the target of strict management. Kangtaike capsules and other cold medicines will only be obtained by prescription.

In fact, prior to this, pharmaceutical products containing ephedrine had undergone several sales restrictions, from never limiting the number of purchases to purchasing only five boxes per person, and then buying only two boxes per person, and the need to register names and identities at the time of purchase. Card etc.

Strict management is good or bad

For patients with common colds, ephedrine-containing drugs can relieve symptoms, but for more than ten years, people have used these drugs to extract methamphetamine. It is these drugs that cause headaches for the regulatory authorities.

In 2011, the Ministry of Public Security and the State Food and Drug Administration jointly held a meeting to convene nearly a hundred production companies that produce ephedrine drugs in China to discuss this issue.

According to a representative who attended the meeting at that time, the regulatory authorities were very annoyed with several cases of using methamphetamine-containing drugs to extract methamphetamine and demanded that these manufacturers strictly enforce sales practices.

As a result, the management of such drugs is in a dilemma. Just like kitchen knives, the normal function is to cut vegetables, but some people buy them for the attack. Is it necessary to strictly manage all the tools?

After several drug cases, drugs containing ephedrine were restricted to be sold step by step.

“Now changing the ephedrine-containing drugs with a unit dose of 30 mg or more to prescription drugs has reduced the possibility of criminals making drugs.” Sun Zhongshi, a national expert on rational drug monitoring by the Ministry of Health, told the China Youth Daily that these drugs were changed to prescription drugs. After that, the difficulty gained is increased, and if the product is refined with less than 30 mg, the production cost will increase significantly. However, if someone still takes this risk, it will be difficult to control.

For drug manufacturers, it may not have a real impact. “In the past, non-prescription drugs were sold mainly in pharmacies, and everyone’s competition was fierce. Prices would continue to fall. They are now becoming prescription drugs and they are mainly sold in hospitals. The prices may stabilize and the actual sales of pharmaceutical companies may not decrease. "The staff of a pharmaceutical factory said.

However, for the average patient who needs these drugs, this means that it is more and more inconvenient. Many people have doubts: Is it necessary to limit the use of cold medicines for many years?

According to Sun Zhongshi, the strict management of some ephedrine-containing drugs is a good thing in terms of social impact, but from the perspective of the patient, it causes inconvenience in use.

According to Zhang Wei, director of the Department of Pharmacy of Huaxi Second Hospital of Sichuan University in China, the transfer of these cold medicines to prescription drug management can prevent the production of drug channels in circulation and facilitate the supervision of the flow of such drugs. In the event of an anomaly, the judiciary can take action in a timely manner.

"I fully agree with the State Food and Drug Administration's attitude and measures." Zhang Hao said that the drug classification management system that China began to implement in 2000 has greatly facilitated the common people’s response to colds, coughs, indigestion, headaches, and fever. Self-treatment of common diseases, but it must be made clear that the risk management of drugs is different because of the different angles of thinking, and the acceptable degree and scope of risks are also different. Compared with ephedrine drugs, the serious potential risk of manufacturing methamphetamines, the country strictly monitors the management of the sale of this drug is an important measure to protect public health.

From the experience of the United States, it seems that the administration of ephedrine-containing drugs to prescription drugs is more effective. Zhang Jian told reporters that after the U.S. Department of Justice issued restrictions on sales of pharmaceutical products containing ephedrine in 2006, the adverse events of methamphetamine were only initially controlled and then increased sharply, from 6,095 in 2007 to 11,239 in 2010. However, after the U.S. State of Oregon restored pseudoephedrine to prescription drugs, the methamphetamine laboratory incident decreased from 190 in 2005 to 12 in 2010. Following the same practice in Mississippi, the amount of illegal production of methamphetamine dropped significantly.

"Currently, Alabama, Missouri, Nevada, Oklahoma, and Tennessee in the United States are also considering whether they should be included in prescription drugs," Zhang said.