Top 5 OTC Meds That Would Require a Presciption if Released Today

Looking at the administrative, legal, and safety hurdles that drug companies have to jump through today, I can’t help but feel (some, just a little) pity for them. I’m sure right now there’s a drug company executive waxing nostalgic over a bygone era where they could do some basic safety research, wine and dine a few physicians in their favorite tax haven, and then get their drug out there for public consumption. But times have changed, and getting FDA approval for medications is alot harder than it used to be. And unless your drug is a quasi-herbal supplemental type of thing made in someone’s back yard, getting the FDA to allow it over the counter is even harder. Here’s my list of the top 5 OTC meds that, if they had been released today, would require a prescription.

1. NSAIDS: (Aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen, etc. . .) These medications are great for pain and for their blood thinning effect by blocking platelet function. But they are also great at eroding stomach lining leading to ulcers, causing kidney damage, reye’s syndrome, hearing problems, etc. . . Would this be allowed OTC by the FDA today? Heck no!

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In Asthma vs. Ozone Layer, Ozone Layer Wins.



I have a confession to make, it pains me to write this post, about the removal of over-the-counter epinephrine (a.k.a. primatene) inhalers, the only inhaler available to asthmatics without a prescription. I mean, it literally causes me a visceral pain. But it’s not for the reason you might think. It has nothing to do with all the hoopla concerning the politics of right vs. left . Neither is it necessarily the strange notion of telling people that they have to breathe worse, so we can save the ozone layer, so they can breathe better (though you must admit that does sound weird).
No, it has more to do with the simple fact that I (and undoubtedly other physicians as well) hate this inhaler. It is a dangerous, possibly addictive, unforgivably poor substitute for a real asthma regimen, and should have been banned from the market long ago.
And so for me, here’s the painful part; I don’t think that simply removing it from the market is the right thing to do.
Continue reading “In Asthma vs. Ozone Layer, Ozone Layer Wins.”