Pharmaceutical regulator cracks down on codeine linctus sales

The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has added conditions to the registration of six pharmacies after finding that they were buying 'unusually high' volumes of codeine linctus.

Codeine linctus is classified as a P medicine under the Medicines Act 1968 and the Human Medicines Regulations 2012. This allows it to be sold only under a pharmacist's supervision, by a pharmacy, without prescription.

However, the medicine, which is occasionally used for a dry cough, is considered high risk because it is known to have been misused, abused or overused.

Due to the quantity of codeine linctus that the unnamed pharmacies were buying, the regulator undertook a series of unannounced inspections.

Following these inspections, each of the six pharmacies has had conditions put on their registration that they must not sell or supply any codeine linctus preparations except when supplying the medicine against an NHS prescription.

Commenting on the action, Claire Bryce-Smith, the regulator's Director of Insight, Intelligence and Inspection, said: 'Opioids are high-risk medicines. Most pharmacies have appropriate safeguards in place to prevent them being misused. We have taken robust action against six pharmacies that did not have these safeguards in place.

'We will continue to use the information we receive as intelligence to identify pharmacies supplying opioids inappropriately and will take necessary enforcement action against them in order to protect the general public and ensure they receive safe and effective care.'

The GPhC initially suspended routine inspections of pharmacies due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but is now completing re-inspections for those pharmacies that previously failed to meet the standards. It is also continuing to act on any information which suggests a risk to patient safety by undertaking 'intelligence-led' inspections.

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