The Pharmacy Guild is weighing up its options on whether to continue with its MedsASSIST program following the recommendation by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) in late December to up-schedule medications containing codeine from pharmacy medicines to prescription only.

Guild national president George Tambassis said the MedsASSIST system – a web-based system that can track sales of OTC codeine in real time – had been very effective, with 70 per cent of pharmacies using it.