The problem of how to dispose of expired medicines is again on the agenda after a commentator argued doctors should curb overprescribing, and the government should make hospitals and pharmacies recover out-of-date drugs.
Shanghai-based news portal The Paper quotes a recent survey that found of 1,990 respondents, 99.6 percent said they had expired medicines at home, that more than half dispose of drugs in the household waste, and that seven-out-of-10 admit say they don't know how to deal with them.
Commentator Zhou Junsheng says the figures are alarming. Simply throwing medicines away creates numerous hazards – they could be taken by someone else, illicitly recovered and “reused” by unscrupulous pharmaceutical companies, and pollute the environment, Zhou writes.
Zhou claims doctors and pharmacies regularly prescribe more medicines than necessary to reap higher profits – and must abandon the practice. Overprescription also wastes medical resources, Zhou adds.
Some pharmaceutical companies have joined hands to establish an outdated medicines recovery service. Though this should be encouraged, the government needs to require public, private hospitals and pharmacies to develop a medicine recovery system. At the initial stage, a small incentive could be given to people who turn in their expired medicines.
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