Due to safety concerns, certain cold and flu medication supplied behind pharmacy counters is being recalled.
Products containing pholcodine, which has a’very rare’ potential of producing an allergic reaction, are being pulled off the shelves, according to medicine regulators.
Since the 1950s, the chemical has been used as a cough suppressant, although some research indicates that when taken with general anesthesia, it may provoke an allergic reaction.
What medicines are being recalled?
• Boots Night Cough Relief Oral Solution
• Boots Dry Cough Syrup 6 Years+
• Boots Day Cold & Flu Relief Oral Solution
• Cofsed Linctus
• Care Pholcodine 5mg/5ml Oral Solution Sugar Free
• Galenphol Linctus
• Galenphol Paediatric Linctus
• Galenphol Strong Linctus
• Covonia Dry Cough Sugar Free Formula
• Pholcodine Linctus Bells Healthcare 5mg Per 5ml Oral Solution
• Numark Pholcodine 5mg per 5ml Oral Solution
• Well Pharmaceuticals Pholcodine 5mg per 5ml Oral Solution
• Superdrug Pholcodine Linctus BP
• Strong Pholcodine Linctus BP
• Pholcodine Linctus BP
• Strong Pholcodine Linctus BP
• Pholcodine Linctus
• Day & Night Nurse Capsules
• Day Nurse Capsules
• Day Nurse
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has advised healthcare professionals to recommend different drugs instead.
People currently taking cold and flu tablets or syrups should check the packaging or patient information leaflet to see if pholcodine is a listed ingredient.
The agency said anyone about to undergo surgery should tell their anaesthetist if they have taken a pholcodine medicine in the past 12 months.
There is some evidence that pholcodine mixing with the neuromuscular blocking agents (NMBAs) in general anaesthetics can cause an ‘increased risk of the very rare event of an allergic reaction’ called anaphylaxis, the MHRA said.
Anaphylaxis is a potentially life-threatening reaction to a triggering substance, such as an allergy.
It usually happens within minutes and can impair breathing and cause a sharp decrease in blood pressure while speeding up someone’s heart rate.
The risk of this happening, however, is ‘very small in patients who have taken pholcodine’, a review by the MHRA found.
‘Anaphylaxis following use of NMBAs is roughly estimated as having an overall incidence of fewer than one case per 10,000 procedures,’ the MHRA said.
‘The benefits don’t outweigh the risks,’ it added.