Australia Rejects Hair-Loss Switch, Up-Schedules Modified-Release Paracetamol

26 Sep 2019

Australia has rejected an application to switch an oral hair-loss treatment, while also up-scheduling modified release paracetamol over safety concerns.

The Australian Ministry of Health has erred on the side of caution in a series of recent scheduling decisions, rejecting an Rx-to-OTC switch of hair loss treatment finasteride and reverse-switching modified release paracetamol (also known as acetaminophen) to pharmacist-only status.

Currently listed as Schedule 4 (prescription-only) medicine in Australia’s Poisons Standard, finasteride was proposed by the applicant to the most...