The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has issued an urgent recall notice for 44 cough medicines due to an increased risk of anaphylactic reactions. The products have been taken off the TGA’s public database for medicines that can be legally supplied in Australia. This includes cough syrups and lozenges from brands such as Priceline, Difflam, Benadryl, and TerryWhite Chemmart.
Further details
The cancellation and recall notice is for cough medicines that contain pholcodine, a substance used for many over-the-counter medicines to treat a dry cough. The use of cough medicines containing pholcodine has been found to increase the likelihood of an anaphylactic reaction when combined with muscle relaxants during general anaesthesia. Anaphylaxis can cause severe health issues, including death. Up to 9 February this year, there had been 50 reports of anaphylactic reactions suspected to be related to pholcodine, which included one fatality.
What should I do?
The TGA has advised checking if your medicine contains pholcodine, and if so, asking your doctor or pharmacist for an alternative treatment. People needing general anaesthesia who have taken a product with pholcodine in the last 12 months are also advised to alert their health professional before the procedure. They’ve also asked health professionals to tell their patients to stop taking medicines that contain pholcodine, and to check if patients set to take medicine for general anaesthesia have used pholcodine in the last 12 months.
Here’s the total list of recalled products:
- APOHEALTH DRY TICKLY COUGH RELIEF 1mg/mL oral liquid bottle (new formulation)
- APOHEALTH DRY TICKLY COUGH RELIEF FORTE 4 mg/mL oral liquid bottle
- APOHEALTH DRY TICKLY COUGH RELIEF 1mg/mL oral liquid bottle
- CHEMISTS’ OWN DRY TICKLY COUGH FORTE 4 mg/mL oral liquid bottle (new formulation)
- CHEMISTS’ OWN DRY COUGH FORTE 3mg/mL oral liquid bottle
- CHEMISTS’ OWN DRY COUGH REGULAR 1 mg/mL oral liquid bottle
- CHEMISTS’ OWN DRY COUGH 1mg/mL oral liquid bottle
- APOHEALTH DRY COUGH RELIEF PE & NASAL DECONGESTANT oral liquid bottle
- BLOOMS THE CHEMIST DRY COUGH RELIEF & NASAL DECONGESTANT PE oral liquid bottle
- CHEMISTS’ OWN KIDDICOL FOR CHILDREN COUGH & COLD oral liquid bottle
- CHEMISTS’ OWN DRY COUGH PLUS NASAL DECONGESTANT PE oral liquid bottle
- CHEMISTS OWN KIDDICOL CHILDREN’S COUGH MIXTURE oral liquid bottle
- LOGICIN DRY COUGH Pholcodine 1mg/mL oral liquid bottle
- DURO-TUSS DRY COUGH LIQUID FORTE pholcodine 3 mg/mL oral liquid bottle (new formulation)
- DIFFLAM PLUS DRY COUGH + ANTIBACTERIAL + ANTI-INFLAMMATORY honey lemon ginger flavour lozenge blister pack
- DURO-TUSS DRY COUGH LIQUID PLUS NASAL DECONGESTANT oral liquid bottle
- DURO-TUSS DRY COUGH LOZENGES orange flavour blister pack
- DURO-TUSS COUGH LIQUID EXPECTORANT oral liquid bottle
- DURO-TUSS PE DRY COUGH LIQUID + NASAL DECONGESTANT oral liquid bottle
- DIFFLAM PLUS DRY COUGH + ANTIBACTERIAL + ANTI-INFLAMMATORY blackcurrant flavour lozenge blister pack
- BENADRYL DRY, TICKLY COUGH FORTE pholcodine 4mg/mL oral liquid bottle
- CODRAL DRY COUGH FORTE STRENGTH pholcodine 4mg/mL oral liquid bottle
- PRICELINE PHARMACY DRY COUGH RELIEF pholcodine 5mg/5mL oral liquid bottle
- PHARMACY HEALTH DRY COUGH RELIEF pholcodine 5mg/5mL oral liquid bottle
- TERRYWHITE CHEMMART DRY COUGH RELIEF pholcodine 1 mg/mL oral liquid bottle
- TERRYWHITE CHEMMART DRY COUGH FORTE pholcodine 4 mg/ mL oral liquid bottle
- PHARMACY CHOICE PHOLCODINE DRY FORTE 4mg/mL oral liquid bottle
- PRICELINE PHARMACY DRY TICKLY COUGH MIXTURE pholcodine 1mg/mL bottle
- PHARMACY HEALTH DRY TICKLY COUGH MIXTURE pholcodine 1mg/mL bottle
- SOUL PATTINSON DRY TICKLY COUGH MEDICINE pholcodine 1 mg/mL oral liquid bottle PHARMACY CHOICE DRY COUGH RELIEF FORTE pholcodine 20 mg / 5 mL oral liquid bottle PHARMACY CHOICE DRY COUGH RELIEF pholcodine 5 mg / 5 mL oral liquid bottle TERRYWHITE CHEMMART DRY COUGH RELIEF FORTE pholcodine 20 mg / 5 mL oral liquid bottle
- NOUMED DRY COUGH LIQUID FORTE pholcodine 4 mg/mL oral liquid bottle
- NOUMED DRY COUGH LIQUID pholcodine 1 mg/mL oral liquid bottle
- PHARMACY CHOICE DRY TICKLY COUGH MEDICINE pholcodine 1 mg/mL oral liquid bottle
- TERRYWHITE CHEMMART DRY COUGH RELIEF pholcodine 5mg/5mL oral liquid bottle. AMCAL DRY COUGH FORTE pholcodine 4mg/mL oral liquid bottle
- AMCAL DRY COUGH MIXTURE pholcodine 1 mg/mL oral liquid bottle
- PHARMACY HEALTH DRY COUGH RELIEF FORTE pholcodine 4 mg/mL oral liquid bottle PRICELINE PHARMACY DRY COUGH RELIEF FORTE pholcodine 4 mg/mL oral liquid bottle
- DURO-TUSS DRY COUGH LIQUID 6 YEARS + pholcodine 1mg/mL oral liquid bottle (New Formula)
- DURO-TUSS DRY COUGH LOZENGES lemon flavour blister pack
- DIFFLAM PLUS DRY COUGH + ANTIBACTERIAL + ANTI-INFLAMMATORY pineapple lime flavour lozenge blister pack
