AUSTRALIAN College of Pharmacy president Georgina Twomey says Australia needs a model of product down-scheduling which allows pharmacists with mandated training and screening tools to supply certain products.
She claimed selective arguments appeared to be used by authorities to justify medicines scheduling decisions in Australia.
"We are urged to work in multidisciplinary teams but scheduling decisions don't always support the development of collaborative care and balance the needs of consumers to access medicines without the barrier of a mandatory medical appointment."
Her comments follow last week's decision by the TGA's Advisory Committee on Medicines Scheduling when it announced that erectile dysfunction and lower urinary tract symptoms therapy vardenafil would not be down-scheduled to S3.
Although six out of seven submissions supported the S3 supply of vardenafil, she said, the Committee's decision appeared to hinge on the fact that "we don't have a mechanism to mandate pharmacist training in Australia".
In the past, Twomey said, industry had been criticised for not being proactive in matters of pharmacist awareness of medicines which are about to be down-scheduled.
However in this case, a "very proactive and collaborative process supported by a men's health GP and medical specialists" had developed "extensive and robust" training modules for pharmacists to identify patients for whom vardenafil should not be supplied without assessment by a doctor.
Twomey cited the situation in New Zealand, where in 2014 sildenafil was reclassified from a prescription medicine to a "prescription medicine; except when supplied by a pharmacist who has successfully completed the approved training".
Twomey said that the New Zealand model would make more effective use of pharmacist skills and increase consumer access.
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