Free the Meds: 5 Drugs You Should Be Able To Buy Over the Counter
The FDA is unnecessarily making your life more difficult.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves not only which drugs can go to market but also whether they require a prescription from a doctor. The agency gets this power from the Durham-Humphrey Amendment of 1951. Meant to protect patients, the law has turned into a license to make life difficult. Here are five low-risk drugs that the FDA could make available over the counter today.
Albuterol: Research shows that albuterol is vastly superior at relieving asthma symptoms compared to other inhalers, which is why it's offered over the counter in Singapore, Australia, Slovenia, and South Africa. It's also available in the United Kingdom under the name Salbutamol. There is no logical safety-related reason why albuterol sits behind the counter while its competitors, the epinephrine drugs Primatene Mist and Asthmanefrin, are available without a prescription.
Insulin: Two outdated versions of insulin are sold over the counter because they were grandfathered in after the passage of the Durham-Humphrey Amendment, but those aren't the products that today's diabetics want or need. As insulin prices have skyrocketed in the U.S., a black market for insulin has emerged. Products like insulin can and should be sold through online retailers like Amazon, especially given the long wait times to see the medical specialists who prescribe the drug.
Tobramycin: Tobramycin eye drops are used to treat conjunctivitis, more commonly known as "pinkeye." It's pretty obvious when someone has pinkeye, but patients still have to go to the doctor to get a prescription for these unharmful eye drops. That often means parents either have to go to the emergency room or miss work to take their kid to the pediatrician.
Simvastatin: Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S., and statins—cholesterol-lowering drugs—can reduce the risk of a heart attack and other common deaths from heart disease. Simvastatin (and other statins like lovastatin) are prescribed for cardiovascular disease. This particular drug has been over-the-counter in the U.K. since 2004 but has failed to get approval for unrestricted usage in the United States. A 2016 study published in the American Journal of Managed Care estimated that over-the-counter statin access could prevent over 250,000 major coronary events over 10 years.
Birth control: With over 9 million users, daily-use oral contraception, or the birth control pill, is the most common form of contraception in the United States. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which represents birth control prescribers, says it "supports over-the-counter access to hormonal contraception without age restrictions." On July 13, the FDA did approve the progestin-only Opill brand for over-the-counter use, which is a step in the right direction.