Starting next July, all Shanghai drugstores will require customers to show a doctor's prescription when selling antibiotics not on the over-the-counter medicine list, said officials from the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration yesterday.

The ruling is in accordance with a new order issued by the national FDA, in a bid to arouse the awareness of the medical community and public about antibiotics abuse and regulate the proper usage of antibiotics.

At present, the consumption of antibiotics ranks first in clinical use and drugstore sales, said officials from the local drug authority. The abuse of antibiotics has already resulted in health problems such as kidney and liver damage.

"Among all the drug adverse reaction cases, 30 to 40 percent are due to antibiotics abuse," said Du Wenmin, director of the Shanghai Drug Adverse Reaction Center. "Many people consider antibiotics as a cure-all and take them for fevers, colds, diarrhea and other conditions without visiting doctors."

Overuse of antibiotics decreases the drug's effectiveness and increases bacteria's resistance. Currently, newly developed antibiotics only remain effective for two to three years. In some cases, patients' resistance to antibiotics means no medicine can help, experts said. Their condition can turn life-threatening.

Experts said since people can buy antibiotics in drugstores without prescriptions, the problem has worsened.

"The nation began to classify medicines as OTC or prescription in 2000," said Zhang Renwei, an official from the local administration. "More than 3,000-odd medicines have been listed. However, there are still a significant amount of medicines awaiting classification."

In some drugstores, antibiotics are sold to customers without a prescription, regardless of whether the medicine is classified OTC.

Several drugstore owners said the new rule is bound to have a strong impact on the local drug market.

"Antibiotics cover a comparatively big part of our sales. So our company is planning to introduce a sales mode like Watson's," said an official from Shanghai Huashi Pharmaceutical Co.

(Shanghai Daily November 7, 2003)