New Poisons Standard Published

The Therapeutic Goods Administration has noted the release of the Standard for the Uniform Scheduling of Medicines and Poisons (SUSMP) No. 32 effective from 01 Feb 2021.

Also known as the Poisons Standard, the new edition supersedes the Oct 2020 version, with a range of changes reflecting recent decisions by the Advisory Committee on Medicines Scheduling.

These include rulings on sumatriptan and zolmitriptan from 07 May 2020; rizatriptan from 24 Aug 2020; eletriptan, ibuprofen and cumyl-pegaclone on 25 Nov 2020; and the delegate-initiated ruling on cannabidiol from 15 Dec 2020.

There are also a number of “minor, delegate-only decisions” which were not referred to the Committee, including a new entry in Schedule 4 for SARSCoV-2 (COVID-19) vaccines.

This addition of a specific separate item for the vaccines is “included to highlight the scheduling of such products given their significance as part of the national response to the COVID-19 emergency”.

Source: Pharmacydaily.com.au, Tuesday, 2 February 2021.