i am confused on whats the difference between over-the-counter drugs and prescription required drugs in Switzerland.

there is a medication i take. some pharmacies say they require a doctors prescription, while others just give it to me... i was wondering if this is legal, for pharmacies to have some discretion over giving out some medications.

does anyone know what the rules are?

What medication ? normally it depends on the formulation
ash

im not going to mention it online,cuz if it is illegal... but i was just wondering on the technicality of prescription drugs here. are they required? or is it only sometimes?

I have a stronge pain killer (for my knee and back) which normally only the doctor can precribe my husband knows the people who work at the chemist so luckily i dont have to keep going back to hospital or the doctors (which charge a fortune just for seeing you) he just sells it to my husband.

yah, the doctors charge way too much for formality check ups. i hate paying when they dont do anything but renew a prescription...

Certain drugs you can only have with a prescription. Renewing the prescription should be free - unless it needs another checkup.

You can get a repeating prescription.

You cannot get prescription-only drugs without a prescription.

Totally agree and if i have to cancel an appointment (normally because one of the kids are ill) they charge me 50frcs

but then why have so many pharmacies given me perscription-only drugs?
also hello, doctors want to make money too, so they almost always require a check-up for a renewing prescription...

It's easy to determine if your medicament requires prescription or not. There is a Swissmedic logo somewhere on the box, with a big letter.

• A: prescription required for every sale
• B: prescription required, prescriptions for several sales allowed

• C: over the counter, counseling required, sold in pharmacies
• D: over the counter, counseling required, sold in pharmacies and drugstores
• E: over the counter, no counseling required, can be sold everywhere

Also to check whether you need to up your Xanax dosage...

spawn of Beatrice mayhap ...

Can be dosage related. For example, I got Dafalgan 500mg (letter D) over the counter but need a prescription for Dafalgan 1g (letter B).

In France if you want to as a visitor you can get prescription drugs without a prescription as the bill is paid to the Pharmacy and this is also possible in Switzerland e.g. I'm visiting and forgot my antibiotics.

Normally though most pharmacies would refuse and for other drugs e.g. tamazapam etc certainly refuse.

As your posting with a pseudonym on a forum why do you worry if its illegal ?

ash

Can you not just take 2 500mg? So then you dont need a prescription for 1g?

Interesting that the doseage bumps a D to a B... But according to this PDF, page 99, Dafalgan 500mg and 1g are exactly the same except the paracetamol.

Yeah I know, it's silly. And those 1g's are really big. I'd rather take two 500s.
But the 1gs were paid for by the insurance. I pay 300Chf a month so I can save 8chf!

They are the same, it's paracetamol... even to the point where you can buy 16 500mgs (no script) or 8 1gs (with script), same thing!

I use a ventolin inhaler for a bit of light asthmaand I'm down to my last one. Does anyone know if this has to be prescribed from the doctors or can you buy it over the counter?

thanks.

Ventolin is B, ergo available on prescription.

By the way it is a medicament against accute asthma attacks, there are better medicaments for non-accute asthma now

I know this stuff... can we please have a couple weeks of winter before the fun starts again?

Great answer. I have had way too much experience in the Swiss pharmacies and find your answer to be quite helpful in beginning to understand what appears to be arbitrary decision making on the part of the pharmacies and pharmacists.

My experience has been that the whole concept of pharmacy counseling in Switzerland is incredibly inconsistent from pharmacy to pharmacy and it also depends on who is helping you. To give an example, I required a cortisone cream for an allergic reaction. This is the typical medicine I use in my country of origin.

Apparently, this was a `C` because the first pharmacist would not give it to me without a prescription. However, I went back to the same pharmacy the next day and spoke with a different pharmacist and-presto change-o, I had the med in two blinks (still without a prescription).

Another time my husband ordered a stronger than normal vitamin for me-was denied, and argued with the pharmacist saying that he knows it does not require a prescription and she finally gave it to him. Of course, to avoid further headaches, we asked the doctor for a prescription.

That whole inconsistency regarding the meds that require counseling thing is what I find to be confusing and unnerving.