From Wednesday, presenting a prescription at a pharmacy to receive eight anti-cold treatments, widely considered dangerous by French health authorities, will be compulsory.
Dolirhume, Actifed, Humex… From Wednesday December 11, the presentation of a prescription to receive these anti-cold treatments will be compulsory, French health authorities indicated this Monday December 9.
“In view of the numerous contraindications, precautions for use and known adverse effects of pseudoephedrine on the one hand and the benign nature of the common cold on the other hand,” the National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM) has considered that “the possibility of obtaining these drugs without medical advice poses too great a risk to patients”, according to a decision unveiled on Tuesday.
“We ask prescribing doctors to carefully assess the benefit/risk balance for each patient before prescribing one of these medications.»added the ANSM, whose ban decision was awaited.
This includes Actifed Cold, Actifed Cold day and night, Dolirhume Paracetamol and Pseudoephedrine, Dolirhumepro Paracetamol Pseudoephedrine and Doxylamine, Humex Cold, Nurofen Cold, Rhinadvil Cold, Ibuprofen/Pseudoephedrine, Rhinadvilcaps Cold Ibuprofen/Pseudoephedrine.
Risks of stroke and heart attack
What these drugs all have in common is that they contain the pseudoephedrine molecule.
Widely considered dangerous for years, the main anti-cold treatments were still over the counter, but they had been the subject of much criticism for several years, starting with the ANSM itself, because they can cause serious effects. secondary events such as strokes and heart attacks.
The French authorities ended up deciding that the risk, even low, was unacceptable given the benign nature of the illness being treated: a simple cold. This position is in line with the main French learned societies (ENT, general practitioners, pharmacists) who all oppose the use of these medications.
On the other hand, it risks offending pharmacists, many of whose representatives believe that such a restriction unfairly reduces the range of medications to be offered to their customers with colds, in a context marked by recurring difficulty in obtaining medical appointments.
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