EU bans cough syrup chemical over severe allergies - Medical Xpress

Cough medicines containing the chemic pholcodine should beryllium banned owed to the hazard of perchance deadly allergic reactions successful radical nether wide anaesthetic, the European Union's cause regulator said Friday.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) recommended that treatments containing pholcodine, which is utilized successful adults and children to dainty adust coughs, should beryllium withdrawn from sale.

"Use of pholcodine successful the 12 months earlier wide anaesthesia... is simply a hazard origin for processing an anaphylactic reaction" to musculus relaxants successful the anaesthetic, the Amsterdam-based watchdog said.

Anaphylactic daze is simply a "sudden, terrible and life-threatening allergic reaction", it added.

Medicines with the chemic were "being withdrawn from the EU marketplace and volition truthful nary longer beryllium disposable by medicine oregon implicit the counter".

Opioid-based pholcodine has been utilized arsenic a cough medicine since the 1950s.

Medicines containing the chemic are presently authorised successful the EU countries of Belgium, Croatia, France, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg and Slovenia, nether marque names including Dimetane, Biocalyptol and Broncalene.

France had said successful September that pholcodine could beryllium banned owed to the hazard of allergies.

In April 2020 astatine the tallness of the Covid-19 pandemic, erstwhile a adust cough was 1 of the main symptoms of the disease, French authorities had recommended against the usage of syrups with pholcodine.

The EMA successful January had recommended updating packaging to pass of the hazard of allergies, based connected caller data.

© 2022 AFP