{"id":598597,"date":"2026-09-13T00:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T00:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/598597\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T00:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T00:52:11","slug":"medicine-company-bids-to-get-pseudoephedrine-on-pharmacy-shelves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/598597\/","title":{"rendered":"Medicine company bids to get pseudoephedrine on pharmacy shelves"},"content":{"rendered":"

A pharmaceutical company wants the cold and flu drug pseudoephedrine out from behind the counter and back on pharmacy shelves.<\/p>\n

By Rowan Quinn for RNZ<\/a><\/p>\n

Reckitt Benckiser has put in an application with drug regulator Medsafe to make the medicine easier to purchase.<\/p>\n

The medicine – a precursor for manufacturing methamphetamine or P – was no longer a threat in its retail form because criminal gangs imported their raw ingredients in bulk, Reckitt said in its application.<\/p>\n

Currently, pseudoephedrine was available as a restricted medicine from pharmacies, meaning it was not stocked on open shelves.<\/p>\n

People who wanted to buy it must instead ask a pharmacist, who would decide if it was suitable for them, before providing it.<\/p>\n

Under the new proposal, small packets of the pill form, effectively one day’s worth, would be available for people to select themselves, alongside medicines like Panadol and ibuprofen.<\/p>\n

It would still only be sold in pharmacies.<\/p>\n

Pseudoephedrine was made a prescription-only drug in 2011 because of its use in the manufacture of P.<\/p>\n

But in 2024, it was reclassified to its current status<\/a> after ACT’s David Seymour pushed for the change on the back of an election campaign promise.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Reckitt Benckiser headquarters in the UK. (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n

Reckitt’s application said the proposed change would give New Zealanders better access to a very effective nasal decongestant and lessen the workload of stretched pharmacists.<\/p>\n

Heavily restricting pseudoephedrine in 2011 did not effectively control the supply and use of meth in New Zealand, it said.<\/p>\n

“The supply and manufacture of methamphetamine use in New Zealand has shifted from small-scale production, where pharmacy-sourced pseudoephedrine was the main precursor used,” it said.<\/p>\n

Instead, there was “large-scale clandestine manufacture” with ingredients brought in from overseas or bulk importation of methamphetamine, the application said.<\/p>\n

When pseudoephedrine was banned from shelves in 2011, many cold and flu remedies changed to the drug phenylephrine.<\/p>\n

That was now the subject of a class action lawsuit after evidence it was ineffective.<\/p>\n

Medsafe’s Medicines Classification Committee would discuss Reckitt’s application at its meeting next month.<\/p>\n

The public could make submissions on the proposal until October 5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A pharmaceutical company wants the cold and flu drug pseudoephedrine out from behind the counter and back on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[134,524,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-598597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-health","tag-medication","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}