The Government today announced that all medicines containing less than 0.2% of codeine will be regulated as Part 1 Schedule 1 poisons under the Pharmacy & Poisons Regulations (PPR) from January 26.

Pharmacies should register the personal information of the purchaser before selling such medicines.

The Pharmacy & Poisons (Amendment) Regulation 2024 will be published in the gazette tomorrow and will take effect on the same day.

The Department of Health said the Government has always been concerned about the abuse of cough preparations and other codeine-containing medicines in Hong Kong.

Currently, medicines containing 0.2% of codeine or more are prescription drugs under the PPR, which can only be purchased from Authorised Sellers of Poisons under the supervision of the registered pharmacist upon a doctor’s prescription.

Medicines containing more than 0.1% but less than 0.2% of codeine are Part 1 Schedule 1 poisons under the PPR.

They should be sold by pharmacies and under the supervision of the registered pharmacist. The pharmacies should register the name, identity card number, address and signature of the purchaser in the Poisons Book before the completion of sale.

Medicines containing not more than 0.1% codeine are Part 1 poisons under the PPR, which should be sold by pharmacies and under the supervision of a registered pharmacist.

The Pharmacy & Poisons Board of Hong Kong earlier decided that medicines containing not more than 0.1% of codeine should also be regulated as a Part 1 Schedule 1 poison under the PPR.

Under the strengthened sales controls, pharmacies must comply with the additional requirements of registering the purchaser's personal information in the Poisons Book before completing the sale. Other current controls remain unchanged.

Members of the public may continue to legally buy these medicines at pharmacies.

Apart from issuing letters to notify pharmacies and other stakeholders of the above-mentioned sales controls in the retail sector, the department has requested all pharmacies to display an official notice inside their premises.