Supermarket sales of pain drugs too risky, says expert

Nurofen and related pain drugs should be banned from sale in supermarkets because of the risk of bad side-effects, a pharmacy academic says.

In 2004, the Ministry of Health loosened restrictions on ibuprofen, sold as Nurofen and other brands, allowing it to be sold in supermarkets and other shops, following an Australian move.

Previously it could be bought without a doctor's prescription, but only from pharmacies.

But an article in the Australian Journal of Pharmacy urges a reconsideration of that decision.

Professor Greg Peterson, of the University of Tasmania School of Pharmacy, writes that research published since 2003 questions the way in which ibuprofen is available.

If regulatory agencies would not reverse their decision, he said, consumers should double-check that the drug was suitable for them.

His article referred to findings such as a higher heart attack risk in ibuprofen users and a higher rate of small-bowel injury in the users of non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (the class including ibuprofen).

A spokesman for the ministry's Medsafe division said: "If someone wants to make a submission about changing the status, we are happy to consider it.

"As far as we are aware, they [Professor Peterson] haven't got anything new; they are just going over old data."

The Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand's chief pharmacist, Euan Galloway, said the article showed the importance of consumers checking with a pharmacist before selecting their own medicine, to ensure the drug was right for them.

A spokeswoman for Nurofen supplier Reckitt Benckiser said the company had no comment on the article as the debate was best left to the medical/scientific community.

When the ministry approved supermarket sales of low-dose ibuprofen in small packets, it was acting on the advice of Medsafe, although the Medicines Classifications Committee did not support the move.

The ministry said at the time that its controls on the dose, pack size and labelling of ibuprofen adequately managed the associated risks. If used as instructed, it had a similar level of safety to aspirin or paracetamol.