Self-medication is to be simplified by making better use of the specialist skills of the drugstores and pharmacies that dispense medicinal products. This decision has been taken as part of the revision of the Therapeutic Products Act.
The legal requirements stipulate that all medicinal products that are currently in dispensing category C and certain category D products have to be evaluated and recategorised: Dispensing category C (in-pharmacy sale only) will be abolished. This means that once recategorisation is complete, drugstores will be able to dispense all medicinal products that do not require a prescription. Investigations are also underway to ascertain which medicinal products in dispensing category D could be dispensed without expert advice. The plan is to reassign these products to dispensing category E (sale in all shops).
Products will be evaluated according to defined scientific criteria and in consultation with external experts who will also represent all dispensing outlets. The aim is to fulfil the political mandate – i.e. to encourage self-medication without jeopardising patient safety. The focus is on the issue of medicine abuse and the possible interactions between non-prescription-only and prescription-only medicinal products.
Last modification 30.06.2018