Australia’s medicines watchdog is set to rule on whether pharmacists can prescribe OTC topical mometasone under a radical shake-up of the scheduling regime.

In February, the TGA announced the creation of a new drug schedule for a potential new range of OTC drugs.

Known as S3 appendix M, the TGA said the category would protect patients from medication misadventure by allowing it to impose restrictions on quantities, demands on pharmacists for extra training or other controls before pharmacists could supply the drugs.

The idea, it said, was to turn more prescription-only drugs into pharmacy-only drugs to “support appropriate self-care”.