Widening consumer access to medicines through switching medicines to non-prescription: a six country comparison.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Switching or reclassifying medicines with established safety profiles from prescription to non-prescription aims to increase timely consumer access to medicines, reduce under-treatment and enhance self-management. However, risks include suboptimal therapy and adverse effects. With a long-standing government policy supporting switching or reclassifying medicines from prescription to non-prescription, the United Kingdom is believed to lead the world in switch, but evidence for this is inconclusive. Interest in switching medicines for certain long-term conditions has arisen in the United Kingdom, United States, and Europe, but such switches have been contentious. The objective of this study was then to provide a comprehensive comparison of progress in switch for medicines a

SUBMITTER: Gauld NJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4175460 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature