Japan's Drugstore Lobby Pushes to Loosen Loxoprofen Sales Restrictions
JACDS is mobilising its member companies to back a public consultation that could reclassify a widely-used NSAID from a pharmacist-only product to one any registered seller may handle.
The Japan Association of Chain Drug Stores (JACDS) has circulated an internal notice urging member companies to participate in a Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare public consultation on whether loxoprofen — currently classified as a Category 1 OTC medicine, requiring a qualified pharmacist to be present at the point of sale — should be reclassified as a Designated Category 2 medicine. That lower classification would permit registered sellers (登録販売者), who are far more numerous across the drugstore estate, to handle transactions without a pharmacist on the shop floor.