Summary
Date: 29 January 2016
The RACGP thanks the Advisory Committee on Medicines Scheduling (ACMS) of the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) for the opportunity to provide comment on the proposed amendments to the Poisons Standard (Codeine).
The RACGP supports the decision to retain the interim decision to up-schedule to Schedule 4. We believe that on balance, the evidence suggests rescheduling is a necessary step to improve patient safety and reduce harm. There is increasing evidence of serious harms from over the counter (OTC) codeine combination analgesics. This harm has not been reduced by restricting medicines to pharmacy only.