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...