Some people are incapable of swallowing tablets because of physical or psychological reasons. What should they do when the doctor prescribes a drug that comes in tablet form?
Australia’s drug regulator is looking into reclassifying codeine-based drugs as prescription-only. This is a good idea because the easy availability of these pinkillers is causing substantial harm.
Hospitals and pharmacies around the country are facing severe shortages of essential drugs. These shortages can limit access to critical medications and compromise patient safety, resulting in serious…
As a nation we smoke too much, drink too much alcohol and don’t do enough exercise. The reasons why we continue to do this despite the health risks is complex, but what is clear is that people in deprived…
The call to abolish the prescription charge in England by the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin is the centre of great debate. Unsurprisingly so. The cost of making and buying pharmaceutical drugs is an emotive…
Gone are the good old days when medicines had simple, easy to pronounce names such as aspirin, paracetamol and morphine. Nowadays pharmaceutical companies almost seem to revel in giving drugs names that…
The process of buying over-the-counter cold-and-flu medicines, and the types of products available, has changed in recent years. Some pharmacies no longer stock pseudoephedrine-based products, and in others…
If you look at the shelves of most Australian community pharmacies or browse the pages of local internet pharmacies, you’ll see numerous examples of products making claims that can’t be supported by scientific…
The emergency contraceptive pill (morning-after pill) contains a hormone called levonorgestrel and can be bought without a prescription. It’s used to prevent pregnancy after unprotected sex, but many women…
Antibiotics that are laced with rat faeces and floor polish? Cough syrup that contains more than a dash of antifreeze? Antipsychotics with no pharmacologically active ingredients? Medications for heart…
The retail pharmacy industry in Australia has successfully acquired a monopoly on supplying medicines paid for by the government or consumers. The industry describes this set-up as being the “best subsidized…