1. What is legal
classification for medication in Singapore?
Legal classification or Regulatory classification is how
Health Science Authority (HSA) categorize medicine in Singapore so that
medications are supplied appropriately to the public.
High risk medications that require medical supervision by physician
can only be supplied when a licensed doctor has written a valid prescription to
treat a specific condition for a patient. These medications are known as POM (Prescription
Only Medicine).
Without prescription, pharmacists can still assess and
supply medications to treat minor ailments such as diarrhea, motion sickness,
runny nose, nausea vomiting, pain killers etc. These medications are called P
(Pharmacy Only Medicine). On top of that, pharmacists can supply certain
medicines in restricted quantity and for specific duration (e.g. 2 week or 10
day depending on the medicine). These medications are called P+, POM (Pharmacy
Only Medicine, 2nd Schedule)
The least restricted class of medication is G or GSL (General
Sales List), which can be sold or supplied to the public without restriction.
Customers can buy these medicines from supermarket, pharmacies even without
doctors’ or pharmacists’ supervision.
2. How are medical
devices classified in Singapore?
Refer to www.hsa.gov.sg
for GN-13 on the risk classification system for medical devices. Medical devices
are generally categorized from class A to class D, with Class A being the lowest
Risk and Class D being the highest risk
3. Why must medicines
be legally classified?
Unlike in some countries where antibiotics and other POM medications
can be bought even without prescriptions, Singapore health system restricts
supply of medication to ensure that patients are properly diagnosed and treated
by trained medical professionals before they consume any medications. This
prevents inappropriate use and abuse of medication.
