New cold medicine to curb methamphetamine production

A new version of cold and allergy medicine Sudafed has been produced without an ingredient used in methamphetamine and police hope it will help reduce illegal drug production.

Sudafed and some other cold and allergy medicines contain pseudoephedrine which is used as a precursor for pure methamphetamine, known as "P".

Drug company Pfizer manufacturers Sudafed and its new product Sudafed PE will be available in the United States on January 10.

Pfizer NZ general manager Peter Baltus said today the company had been working for several months to get the new product approved for the New Zealand market.

New Zealand had a different regulatory framework which required a host of criteria to be fulfilled.

"The process here requires us to do a number of further developments with the product before we will be able to get it into the market," he told NZPA.

Pfizer had been liaising with police, New Zealand Customs, the Health Ministry and its drug safety agency Medsafe about the product.

Mr Baltus said Pfizer hoped to have Sudafed PE on pharmacy shelves in 2005.

Police spokesman Jon Neilson said today anything to reduce the manufacturing of methamphetamine would be a good thing.

"Anything would be an assistance."

- NZPA