OTC cough and cold medicines for children: Submission of a written request to the MHLW, aiming to ban OTC cough and cold medicines for children under 6
2010-11-17
Unlike the UK and other countries, over-the-counter (OTC) cough and cold medicine for children under 6 is not banned in Japan.
The package inserts of OTC cough and cold medicine in Japan state that parents of children under 2 should consult physicians and use OTC medicine only in special cases.
Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) asked the Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Associations of Japan (PMAJ) and the Japan Pharmaceutical Association(JPA) to disseminate the above information.
However, a survey conducted by Medwatcher Japan shows that drug stores are not giving consumers appropriate advice on OTC cough and cold medicine for children.
There is no evidence of efficacy in OTC cough and cold medicine for children. Such medicine can cause serious side effects, and is just a symptomatic treatment which may delay the finding of other serious diseases.
Therefore, we submitted a written request to the MHLW aiming to ban OTC cough and cold medicine for children under 6.
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