GlaxoSmithKline, which produces the popular headache pill Panodil, is demanding that the government introduces prescription requirements for purchases of more than 20 pills, due to an increase in the number of overdoses using the medicine.

“Efforts by the politicians haven’t worked,” says GlaxoSmithKline Marketing Manager Annette Marcher who has written to Denmark’s Health Minister Jakob Axel Nielsen (Cons).

Marcher says her company will not earn more by moving sales into smaller packages which are more expensive to produce and distribute.

Majority
Although the Liberal Party has hitherto been against restricting purchases of larger amounts of the medicine, Parliamentary Health Committee Chairman Preben Rudiengaard (Lib) seems to have changed his mind.

“If there is evidence to show that a prescription requirement would have a positive effect, then that is probably the way to go,” Rudiengaard says, adding he plans to discuss the issue with the health minister on Monday. The government currently has plans to introduce a minimum age of 18 in order to purchase headache pills.

Denmark is one of the few countries in the region to allow purchases of larger amounts of headache pills without a prescription.