Over or under the counter down under and elsewhere?

October 7, 2008 11:40 AM

Is there a site where you can find out if a particular drug is sold over the counter or only by prescription or not at all in a particular country?

I visualize a chart with countries on one axis, names of medications on the other, symbols at the intersections. Or a database where you search by drug and country.

Unfortunately any google search for anything that has to do with prescription drugs is immediately swamped by online pharmacies and the like.

posted by RandlePatrickMcMurphy to Health & Fitness (2 answers total)

Wikipedia usually has this information for the largest markets (US and several European countries) about any drug for which there is an article, so if you're looking for common drugs and major markets, you can probably find the information you seek by looking the drug up there.
posted by decathecting at 12:13 PM on October 7, 2008

Unfortunately, no. You may want to try searching online using the chemical name of the drug (for example, aspirin is acetylsalicylic acid) in the country's native language, which may yield more helpful results.
posted by dreaming in stereo at 5:53 PM on October 7, 2008