FDA to Mull on Whether to Make Prescription Drugs Available OTC

The US Food and Drug Administration is currently considering whether some of the most common prescription drugs should be made available over the counter in order to make sure that they are more readily available. The FDA said that it could make prescription drugs for some of the common illnesses, such as diabetes, asthma and blood pressure, available over the counter as a large number of people do not take medication.

According to the agency more than a third of people with high blood pressure do not take medication leading to worsening of their condition.

The agency also said that it has received a number of applications to make cholesterol drugs known as statins to be made available over the counter. “We've had several applications already to switch statins to over the counter, and they have failed because consumers can't determine their lipid status”, the agency’s head of drugs center, Janet Woodcock said.


Source-Medindia