A health ministry study panel called on the government Tuesday to give the green light to the sale of about 350 kinds of over-the-counter drugs at convenience stores and other retailers as part of deregulation efforts, but cold and pain medications will not be among them.
Panel members said intestinal remedies, gargles, antiseptics, vitamin-based remedies and cough rubs can be sold at shops without licensed pharmacists.
But the decontrol will not cover medicines used for treating colds, fevers and pain -- as had been called for by the Council for Regulatory Reform. These were excluded because of reports of serious side effects, the panel members said.
"It could be dangerous to immediately take cold drugs just because patients have developed cold symptoms," said Hiroshi Saito, a professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo who heads the study panel's subcommittee in charge of recommending drugs for deregulation. "Such medicines should be used appropriately after consulting with pharmacists."
The subcommittee selected the 350 drugs in 15 categories after looking into about 13,000 over-the-counter drugs. It excluded medicines that have a high risk of side effects, habitual drugs and ones that should not be taken by children and pregnant women.
It submitted the recommendation to the full study panel, which is expected to make the final decision.
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry is expected to allow the drugs to be sold at retailers without pharmacists, but it has not decided whether to revise the pharmacy law, which limits over-the-counter drugs in principle to shops with pharmacists.
Over-the-counter drugs could also be classified as quasi-drugs, which would allow them to be sold at retailers without changing the law.