DRUGS CRACKDOWN CATCHES FLU REMEDIES

Pharmacists have sounded the alarm over some across-the-counter cold and
flu remedies being caught up inadvertently in a crackdown on the drug P.
Associate Health Minister Jim Anderton met industry representatives this
week after it was discovered that tougher rules for ephedrine and
pseudoephedrine meant slow release cough and flu remedies could not be sold
without a prescription.

A select committee was told this week that the affected medicines included
Sudafed 12 and 24-hour remedies, Clarinase 12-hour and Demazin. The changes
would deny people access to cold medications that had been used safely for
years, ACT MP Heather Roy said yesterday.

"The select committee was told that only pharmacists - not pharmacy
assistants - could sell these products to the public and slow release
products would be available only by prescription," she said.

Mr Anderton's office said the minister was aware of the issue and it had
not been intended to restrict access to remedies by genuine users. The
industry's concerns would be taken into account when the final regulations
were drafted.

The Government announced this month that Customs would have wider powers to
investigate importation syndicates and that penalties would be increased to
crack down on an explosion in the importation of pseudoephedrine and
ephedrine, which are used to manufacture the drug P. Both substances are
classified as pharmacy-only medicines in lower doses and as a prescription
medicine in higher doses.

Stricter controls against the supply and use of the substances are also
being introduced and a licence will be required to import, export or deal
in them.

In its submission on the changes, the drug company Pfizer warned that a new
requirement to label pseudoephedrine cold remedies a "controlled drug"
would encourage their misuse.

"The label would clearly identify to abusers the entire range of
pseudoephedrine products available to them."

But legitimate users might be "unnecessarily alarmed" about the potential
for addiction and side effects, it said.