Managing Codeine Stocks Post 01 Feb 2018

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has posted an update on how to manage stocks of products containing codeine following their rescheduling to S4 on 01 Feb 2018.  Products involved include those for both pain management as well as cough and cold products which also contain codeine.

All states and territories have agreed that S2 and S3 codeinecontaining medicines that have been rescheduled to Schedule 4 and are still in a retail pharmacy after 01 Feb 2018 may be dispensed after that date on prescription for a maximum period of nine months (until 31 Oct 2018) or until the end of the shelf life, whichever is earlier, the TGA said.

Other conditions apply, namely, a valid prescription is required, the stock needs to be stored in the dispensary and state or territory laws still need to be observed.

Go to tga.gov.au for details.

Source: pharamcydaily.com.au, Friday 15 September 2017