Thai Pharmacies, Clinics To Face 30-Day Deadline: Cold Pills

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COLD PILLS

Pharmacies, clinics to face 30-day deadline

PUANGCHOMPHU PRASERT

THE NATION

BANGKOK: -- Pharmacies and clinics will have just 30 days to clear their inventories of all pseudoephedrine-containing medicines once a regulation signed by the public health minister yesterday appears in the Royal Gazette.

"They must return the remaining stock to the drug companies," Food and Drug Administration (FDA) secretary-general Dr Pipat Yingseri said yesterday.

He said the new regulation would apply to all medicines that contain pseudoephedrine, including ones mixed with paracetamol.

Widely used in medicines to treat cold symptoms, pseudoephedrine has become a closely monitored and controlled item in recent years as it is also used to produce methamphetamine.

Authorities earlier removed pseudoephedrine-containing medicines from the approved list of over-the-counter medicines. However, the measure proved inadequate.

Recently, it was revealed that some 45 million pseudoephedrine-containing tablets had disappeared from hospitals, raising concerns that the missing pills were siphoned off into the hands of drug-trafficking gangs.

"In January last year, we asked the Council of State to determine whether pseudoephedrine could be listed as a psychotropic substance," Pipat said.

Public Health Minister Witthaya Buranasiri yesterday said he had signed the ministerial regulation declaring pseudoephedrine a psychotropic substance that only authorised persons could use or possess.

Unauthorised use or possession of pseudoephedrine-containing items shall be punishable by a jail term of one to five years and a fine of between Bt20,000 and Bt100,000. Possession of more than 5 grams of pure pseudoephedrine will be punishable by a jail term of between five and 20 years and a fine of between Bt100,000 and Bt400,000.

The new regulation will take effect after it is published in the Royal Gazette, which is expected to happen very soon.

"We told drug companies in January that they must stop producing pseudoephedrine-containing medicines," Pipat said.

The latest checks showed that there are some 60 million tablets of pseudoephedrine-containing medicines in the possession of drug companies and 20 million more at state hospitals.

Today(April 4), the FDA will brief drug companies about what to do in regards to the pseudoephedrine-containing medicines. Hospitals that have such medicines in stock will be allowed to use them under the close supervision of doctors.

Health Service Support Department director-general Dr Somchai Pinyopornpanich said his department was investigating private hospitals and clinics that had ordered unusually large amounts of pseudoephedrine-containing medicines.

"Each of [the facilities being investigated] had ordered more than 300,000 tablets per year," he said.

He said the investigation had cleared Navamin 9 Hospital because the ordered tablets went directly to its stock for use at the facility. "But the investigation has shown that someone used the name of Navamin 1 Hospital to order 922,500 tablets for 70 pharmacies," Somchai said.

"We have forwarded this case to the Department of Special Investigation to determine whether the hospital knew about it. But at this point, paper records show the hospital stopped using the services of this middleman before the problematic purchases took place."

According to Somchai, the FDA will be asked to determine what actions should be taken against pharmacies that received pseudoephedrine-containing tablets from this middleman.

In a related development, officials yesterday raided a clinic in Lop Buri based on a tip-off and confiscated 212,600 tablets and 60 liquid bottles of medicine containing pseudoephedrine.

"We will investigate why it stocked such a huge amount of these medicines," Pasit Sakdanarong said in his capacity as an adviser to the public health minister.

To date, the Public Health Ministry has launched probes against 14 government officials on suspicion that they had committed disciplinary offences relating to the misuse of pseudoephedrine-containing medicines through state hospitals.

Of the 14, nine are accused of committing grave disciplinary offences. Eight are pharmacists, while the other is the director of Thong Saen Khan Hospital in Uttaradit province.

-- The Nation 2012-04-04

[Ijustwannateach]

Madness. This means that any person who simply has a cold will have to report to hospitals- not clinics or pharmacies- nationwide- to get effective treatment.

All in the name of catching one or two top political enemies before they lose power. Disgusting.

[h90]

Madness. This means that any person who simply has a cold will have to report to hospitals- not clinics or pharmacies- nationwide- to get effective treatment.

All in the name of catching one or two top political enemies before they lose power. Disgusting.

yes a shame. As the narcotics were transported with cars an airplanes why not ban cars and airplanes???

No one want to understand that this is fighting the symptoms not the root of the problem. It will only keep the prices high and make more profit.

[SaNim]

Madness. This means that any person who simply has a cold will have to report to hospitals- not clinics or pharmacies- nationwide- to get effective treatment.

All in the name of catching one or two top political enemies before they lose power. Disgusting.

Of course it doesn't mean that.

It just means that you'll have to choose or have the pharmacist advise you on an alternative remedy that doesn't contain pseudoephedrine.

The sky is not falling down.

Edited April 4, 2012 by SaNim

[fstarbkk]

Madness. This means that any person who simply has a cold will have to report to hospitals- not clinics or pharmacies- nationwide- to get effective treatment.

All in the name of catching one or two top political enemies before they lose power. Disgusting.

Of course it doesn't mean that.

It just means that you'll have to choose or have the pharmacist advise you on an alternative remedy that doesn't contain pseudoephedrine.

The sky is not falling down.

Medicines containing pseudoephedrine like Claritin D (Clarinase in TH), have brought effective relief to millions of allergy sufferers around the world since their introduction in the 1980's. In their commercial tablet forms the possibility of abuse is very small (i.e. impractical). Only through large-scale extraction of the pseudoephedrine is it possible to use them for illegitimate purposes.

Other countries have long dealt with this possibility in a sensible manner, via restrictive distribution and monitoring of the distribution channels. Last time I was in the US, I had to show proof of identity and address, to purchase a box oft my allergy tablets at a chain drugstore.

The irony of the situation is that the only place where one may obtain such medicines in the future in TH, are hospitals - the very places where large quantities of these drugs are routinely kept in stock and, apparently, have a way of disappearing out the backdoor in commercially viable quantities for the production of speed etc..

But hey, there's no need to let logic get in the way of a good political solution! So, for now hospital administrators all over the land only have to lay low for a while - in anticiipation of a complete monopoly for pseudoephedrine pills, which will then command even better prices when they're loaded back on the trucks headed for Burma.