{"id":768122,"date":"2026-09-12T07:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T07:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/768122\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T07:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T07:38:10","slug":"medicine-company-bids-to-get-pseudoephedrine-out-from-behind-pharmacy-counters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/768122\/","title":{"rendered":"Medicine company bids to get pseudoephedrine out from behind pharmacy counters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"eYVVqkRVmn\" style=\"display:none\">People who want to buy it have to ask a pharmacist, who decides if it is suitable for them before providing it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"eYVVqkRVmn\" style=\"display:none\">Under the new proposal, small packets of the pill form, effectively one day\u2019s worth, would be available for people to select themselves, alongside medicines such as Panadol and ibuprofen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"eYVVqkRVmn\" style=\"display:none\">It would still only be sold in pharmacies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"eYVVqkRVmn\" style=\"display:none\">Pseudoephedrine was made a prescription-only drug in 2011 because of its use in the manufacture of P.<\/p>\n<p class=\"eYVVqkRVmn\" style=\"display:none\">But in 2024, it was reclassified to its current status after Act\u2019s David Seymour pushed for the change on the back of an election campaign promise.<\/p>\n<p class=\"eYVVqkRVmn\" style=\"display:none\">Reckitt\u2019s application said the proposed change would give New Zealanders better access to an effective nasal decongestant and lessen the workload of stretched pharmacists.<\/p>\n<p class=\"eYVVqkRVmn\" style=\"display:none\">Heavily restricting pseudoephedrine in 2011 did not effectively control the supply and use of meth in New Zealand, it said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"eYVVqkRVmn\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThe supply and manufacture of methamphetamine use in New Zealand has shifted from small-scale production, where pharmacy-sourced pseudoephedrine was the main precursor used,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"eYVVqkRVmn\" style=\"display:none\">Instead, there was \u201clarge-scale clandestine manufacture\u201d with ingredients brought in from overseas or bulk importation of methamphetamine, the application said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"eYVVqkRVmn\" style=\"display:none\">When pseudoephedrine was banned from shelves in 2011, many cold and flu remedies changed to the drug phenylephrine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"eYVVqkRVmn\" style=\"display:none\">That was now the subject of a class action lawsuit after evidence it was ineffective.<\/p>\n<p class=\"eYVVqkRVmn\" style=\"display:none\">Medsafe\u2019s Medicines Classification Committee is set to discuss Reckitt\u2019s application at its meeting next month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"eYVVqkRVmn\" style=\"display:none\">The public can make submissions on the proposal until October 5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People who want to buy it have to ask a pharmacist, who decides if it is suitable for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":768123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[23767,253613,1944,253615,900,909,102,6591,3100,1773,20702,253614,253617,253616,1850,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-768122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-behind","tag-bids","tag-company","tag-counters","tag-from","tag-get","tag-health","tag-medication","tag-medicine","tag-out","tag-pharmacy","tag-pseudoephedrine","tag-quinn","tag-rowan","tag-to","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=768122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}