The decision to ban sales of certain medicines in supermarkets will deny parents of sick children ready access to cough and cold relief and force them to pay up to 147% more for the same product, according to the Food and Grocery Council.
Yesterday, the Ministry of Health announced that certain cough and cold medicines targeted at children would be removed from New Zealand supermarket shelves and sold only in pharmacies.
This came after similar moves overseas.
But Food and Grocery Council chief executive Katherine Rich said the move was disappointing when there was no evidence of any safety issues in New Zealand or overseas.
"Parents who have been quite happy in the past to buy these products from supermarket shelves will be hit hard in the pocket. Some cough cold remedies currently available in supermarkets are 50 - 147% more expensive in pharmacies for the same product," she said.
"It seems to be a case of "Britain's done it", so should New Zealand."
Cough and cold medicines, targeted at children under 12 and which contain dextromethorphan, phenylephrine and ipecacuanha, will now only be sold at pharmacies.
The decision was made after the medicines classification committee and Medsafe warned the ministry over the medicines' safety and efficacy. There was no evidence that they worked in children and there was evidence of rare but severe reaction in children under six years of age, the ministry said.
Medicines containing the ingredients would remain available in supermarkets provided they were re-labelled as being for adult use, Medsafe group manager Stewart Jessamine said.
Medsafe would be working with pharmaceutical manufacturers to implement classification and labelling changes, and re-labelled stocks are expected to become available after winter, Dr Jessamine said.
Dr Rich said it was clear that Medsafe was "hell-bent" on pushing the policy through. "Medsafe has not given consideration to the fact that pharmacies often have only limited hours and in many rural communities there aren't pharmacies at all."
Cough and cold remedies which contain glycerol, guaiphenesin and ingredients such as honey, lemon and other natural substances will still be allowed to be sold at supermarkets.