Which drugs should be available over the counter?

doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7459.182

BMJ 2004;329:182-183 (24 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7459.182

Editorial

Which drugs should be available over the counter?

The criteria are clear and include safety, timeliness, and opportunitycost

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

As contraception after intercourse, levonorgestrel is availableby prescription in the United States and in most other countries.In over 30 countries it is available without prescription.¹Levonorgestrel recently came to wide attention when the US Foodand Drug Administration (FDA) acted on an application to switchthe drug to non-prescription or "over the counter" status.²The application was supported by essentially all internal scientificstaff and the external advisory committee of the FDA, but theFDA rejected the application. The reason given had to do withthe ability of women to understand the appropriate use of theproduct,³ but this issue had been explicitly discussed and settledto the satisfaction of the FDA's scientists and external advisorycommittee⁴ The FDA's explicit denial that the decision had beenthe result of political pressure has been received with scepticism.^5-8

How should policy makers decide which drugs should be availableover . . . [Full text of this article]

Robert R Fenichel, consultant

3922 Ingomar Street, NW, Washington DC 20015-1916 USA (bob@fenichel.net)

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Relevant Article

Impact on contraceptive practice of making emergency hormonal contraception available over the counter in Great Britain: repeated cross sectional surveys: Cicely Marston, Howard Meltzer, and Azeem Majeed
BMJ 2005 331: 271. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

Aronson, J. K. (2009). From prescription-only to over-the-counter medicines ('PoM to P'): time for an intermediate category. Br Med Bull 90: 63-69 [Abstract] [Full text]
Marston, C., Meltzer, H., Majeed, A. (2005). Impact on contraceptive practice of making emergency hormonal contraception available over the counter in Great Britain: repeated cross sectional surveys. BMJ 331: 271- [Abstract] [Full text]

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