The current two-class system of drug distribution (prescription and non-prescription) empowers consumers with a widening choice of safe and effective medicinal healthcare options conveniently available at competitive prices. This emphasis on consumer empowerment in matters of healthcare directly serves two of the most fundamental demands of any workable healthcare system: access and affordability.
Some advocate for a so-called “third class” of drugs for which pharmacists would be the decision makers on who is an appropriate candidate for a particular drug. The current two-class system, however, gives medicine makers and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration the room for flexibility and innovation that precludes the need for such a third class. Medicine makers can, and do, develop inventive and novel ways to ensure consumers can have access to even more resources for safe and effective nonprescription medicines. Web site information centers, point-of-sale kiosks, audio tapes, or distribution restrictions are a few examples of innovative approaches to expanding access to over-the-counter medicines in the market today.
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