Heartache over aspirin

Photo / Brett Phibbs

Aspirin is being lined up for restricted sale, with pharmacists saying low doses of the popular family medicine are too dangerous for general sale to those with heart conditions.

And they are not stopping there - the widely-used medicinal comfort of paracetamol might also be pushed out of supermarkets and service stations into the restricted confines of a chemist.

The moves are part of a push by the Pharmacy Guild, which is claiming convenience sales of popular medicines are a risk to the public and an encouragement to waste money.

Cough and cold remedies have already been challenged and those aimed at children under 12 are now only for sale from pharmacies.

The moves have prompted supermarket suppliers to accuse pharmacists of under-estimating the intelligence of Kiwis and of raising health fears to pad profits.

The latest move came from the company behind the two most recognisable pharmacy chains - Unichem and Amcal.

It has asked the Ministry of Health to make sales of products containing aspirin illegal outside pharmacies.

Products targeted by the company - Pharmacybrands Ltd - are those with doses of aspirin marketed at people using it to prevent heart disease.

It would not affect the doses used for headaches and other pain relief, which are up to six times more powerful.

A decision on whether to pull the cardiac-style doses out of shops is set down for November at a meeting of the medicines classification committee. The group reports to Health Minister Tony Ryall, whose office is yet to be briefed on the issue.

The submission stated that low-dose aspirin used for prevention of heart disease needed greater restrictions because new research showed the risks outweighed the benefits.

It stated that pharmacists were able to quiz customers using the drug whether they were taking other medicines that might increase risk of internal bleeding. Other possible complications included stomach ulcers.

It also claimed customers would be financially better off because pharmacists could discourage them from buying it if they didn't need it.

Aspirin is seen as an easy way to prevent heart disease. Taking the drug daily was believed to reduce blockages in the circulatory system.

Pharmacybrands professional services manager Jane Caldwell said people taking the low-dose aspirin needed to talk to a health professional first. She said a pharmacist was "ideally" placed to advise.

Supermarket suppliers' lobbyist Katherine Rich, of the Food and Grocery Council, said Kiwis were able to make sensible decisions on buying basic medicines.