The National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) confirmed its intention to very soon list oral medications containing pseudoephedrine in an email sent at the end of last week to pharmacists’ unions. A measure that some consider insufficient.
A member of the Academy of Pharmacy, Professor Alain Astier headed the pharmacy department at Henri-Mondor hospital in Créteil for 40 years. On November 22 on “Franceinfo”, he took a position on the sensitive subject of oral vasoconstrictors, which should no longer be available except by prescription within a few weeks, by decision of the ANSM. For this pharmacy professor, this measure does not go far enough. “We must completely remove them from the market (…) It is high time. It has been years since many colleagues have shown the dangerousness and ultimate uselessness of this type of product”he underlines, referring here to the various pharmacovigilance reports warning of a risk of rare but serious side effects (stroke, heart attack) occurring in patients who have used these medications indicated for colds.
A few months ago, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) declared that oral medicinal products containing pseudoephedrine did not present sufficient risks to be banned and simply imposed new contraindications. A decision strongly criticized by the magazine “Prescrire”, which then deplored “a missed opportunity (of) protect patients.” A position that Professor Astier joins today. “We have to follow through with the reasoning. Either these products have an interest and, at that moment, they must be kept, or they have no interest. (…) I don’t see the point in a doctor. So why keep them? These are always half measures, we might as well remove them from the market,” pleads the member of the Academy of Pharmacy. He calls on the ANSM to toughen up its tone, even if it means going against the position of the EMA. “In terms of health and for security reasons in particular, a local agency in a European country can deviate from the European rule. We have to go that far,” he defends.
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