Pharmacies Or Hospitals

[glasswort]

This morning I attended Bangkok Pattaya hospital for my regular 3 monthly check up. After I had finished I went to the Fascino pharmacy on Pattay Nua to purchase my next 3 month's supply of medication. I do not purchase anything at the hospital pharmacy because it is twice the price of Fascino. I handed my list to the girl and she put everything on the counter, until she arrived at the last item, namely 81mg aspirin. She told me that due to Government regulations private paharmacies are no longer permitted to sell aspirin and that the shop no longer kept stocks. I looked at the other tablets that I had purchased and loads more on the shelves and these are probably available on prescription only in developed countries but freely available over the counter here. I have been coming o the LOS for 17 years and lived and worked here for 10 years so have come to expect the unexpected, but aspirin (probably the most common headache cure in the world) not on sale in private pharmacies, they have got to be kidding. Can anyone throw any light on this please?

[gregb]

Really?

What about in children's medication then? Paracetamol has been shown to be dangerous for small children, leading to substantially increased risk of asthma later on in life.

Are you telling me then that safe medications for my toddler are no longer available in this country except by getting a prescription from the hospital?

That is absurd.

But they will still sell the dangerous paracetamol based ones at the pharmacy. Only in Thailand.

Edited April 7, 2012 by gregb

[h90]

Sounds strange....try to go to a different pharmacy.....

Aspirin has some unpleasant side effects with Dengue fewer (if I recall right), but stop selling???

I purchased a lot of the 500 mg Aspirins in the past.

[Mobi]

Was it Cardiprin 100, (a low dose aspirin tablet specially formulated to dissolve on the tongue for rapid absorption), you were after? If so, I got the same message after buying the med there for many years.

She seemed to be telling me the same thing a she told you - in English and Thai - but it is completely weird and I haven't really been able to get to the bottom of it.

As they wouldn't sell me Cardiprin, I bought some other mini aspirins which were no problem to buy there.

Then 2 months later, Cardiprin suddenly appeared on the shelves again and I bought it as normal.

Then this week, they were missing again and I got the same message - we don't sell them any more. But there was also another drug that was out of stock and when I asked them to call me when it came in, she wrote my name down and wrote the name of the drug next to it along with Cardiprin!! and said she would call me about both of them.

The post script to this story is that I thought I would check out another branch of Fascino for the other drug, and lo behold, not only did they have that one in stock but they also had a large stock of Cardiprin!!!!

There is clearly something getting lost here in communication. I was served by different people and they both seemed to be telling me they are not allowed to sell it any more, but that is clearly not the case.

So don't worry.

[Ulysses G.]

There are posts on this matter all over Thai Visa and it seems to be true that only hospitals can sell it legally from now on.This is absolutely ridiculous and will make buying aspirin expensive for those who use it regularly, but what can you do?

Edited April 7, 2012 by Ulysses G.

[tfc]

Since I once had dengue I no longer use asprin but not making it available seems crazy. You can buy it on the shelves at supermarkets in Australia and Australia is pretty tight when it comes to drugs or so I thought.

[bunnaag]

no baby aspirin in Had Yai.Last year still available.

[h90]

Does anyone know if that applies also to the "normal" 500 mg Bayer Aspirin?

[craigt3365]

Wow...very strange. Isn't that 81mg aspirin low dosage? Like people with potential heart problems are recommended to take? Like me! And I'm just about out!

I'll move this over to the health forum to see what others have to say there.

[Tywais]

I also use Aspent 81 but haven't checked availability yet. There is conflicting reports on this in other Thaivisa forums. Sheryl responded to the one in Chiang Mai:

"If the brand was Aspent it is due to stock outs as the plant that makes it was badly damaged in the floods.It is not due to aspirin being in any way a restrcted drug, just temporarily off the shelves. (Other brands are still on the shelf but Aspen is the only enteris coated brand AFAIK)"

[thenervoussurgeon]

Farcino were still selling it last week ,perhaps what she meant to say is that they are no longer allowed to sell the small plastic pots of it ,new govt regulations state that they have to be sold in sealed strip form . the reason being that they can get damp in bottles , the bottom line is that they are now 50% more expensive.

PS they do this in the UK as well.

pps all chemists in Pattaya are now selling them in this form ,i know i checked.

[MickA]

Had the same thing happen to me in Fascino Pattaya so waited until I got back to Hua Hin , went in Fascino here no problem! The girl actually apologised as they no longer have Bayer just a generic local brand 15 baht for a strip of ten 81mg

Edited April 8, 2012 by MickA

[Bagwan]

Aspirin is an NSAID. If you don't know what that is do look it up. In combination with some other medications NSAIDS are harmful.

[Sheryl]

There have been many recent threads on this.

To the best of my understanding there has been no change in the classification of any form of aspirin, they are all approved for OTC sale.

However the supply of the only enteric coated low dose form (Aspent) has been compromised due to substantial flood damage to the plant which produces it and this has led to rationing of it giving first priority to hospitals (tho some of them are out of stock as well).

Primarily in Pattaya, some pharmacy personnel (including Fascinos) have given out the misinformation that it is now a prescription only drug.

You ca definitely and easily by regular aspirin almost everywhere. But you may indeed have a problem finding Aspent though if you do a search in this forum you'll find accounts of people who have. As I think its use is especially common among farang, it may be harder to find in places like Pattaya with high foreign populations.

Now cold remedies on the other hand, really and truly (and incredibly) been taken off the market....but that is an entirely other story.

[Mobi]

Thank you Sheryl, that seems to unlock this little mystery very well.

[Phil Conners]

There is already a long discussion on the subject here.