Increasing access to nonprescription medicines: a global public health challenge and opportunity.
As escalating health-care costs continue to be a focus of public discourse, the populace has become increasingly attentive to its own health and lifestyle choices. Nonprescription (over-the-counter, OTC) medicines represent an important option in this evolving environment and, through novel "Rx-to-OTC" switch efforts, could expand beyond their traditional role in symptomatic relief of common conditions such as minor pain, coughs, colds, heartburn, and allergy. This is certainly not a new concept. In fact, the self-care movement has roots reaching into the past century. Pharmaceutical companies and their consumer-product subsidiaries or partners have long considered and, when feasible, invested in difficult OTC switch development programs.
Hemwall
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Worldwide OTC Regulatory and Scientific Affairs, Merck Research Laboratories, West Point, Pennsylvania, USA. edwin_hemwall@merck.com
D014943:Global Health; D006801:Humans; D004366:Nonprescription Drugs / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D011634:Public Health / Q000639:trends*; D012651:Self Medication / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends*
D004366:Nonprescription Drugs