Australians will soon only be able to buy smaller packs of paracetamol

Aussies buying paracetamol will have to deal with new rules after a decision from The Therapeutic Goods Administration. See what’s changing.

Paracetamol pack sizes will be cut but the restrictions will not be as tough as originally planned under new measures to cut the number of deaths related to use of the drug.

Packs of the painkiller sold in supermarkets will be cut from 20 to 16 tablets from February 2025 as originally outlined.

However, the medical regulator has backed down to public concerns and will allow chemists to sell larger pack sizes.

From February 2025, the number of tablets that can be sold in a chemist will fall from 100 to 50.

Paracetamol pack sizes are being reduced in Australia. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Joel Carrett

Originally, pack sizes sold in chemists were to be slashed to 32 tablets.

The same restrictions will also apply to cough and cold remedies that contain paracetamol and paracetamol tablets sold outside a pharmacy will have to be in blister packs to make it harder for people to overdose on the drug.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) said it had decided to not change the number of packs that can be sold in a single transaction or purchaser age.

Australia’s medicines watchdog announced its final decision on Wednesday after a hotly contested public consultation.

Chemists will still be allowed to sell larger packs. Picture: David Mariuz

Each year in Australia about 225 people are hospitalised and 50 Australians die from paracetamol overdose.

Adolescents and young adults have the highest rates of overdose and to make it harder for people to take too many pills at once the TGA wants them sold in blister packaging.

Pain Australia’s CEO Giulia Jones said the decision was “disappointing that those who rely on supermarkets are going to be penalised and that the cost of this accessible treatment for chronic pain is going to most likely go up slightly”.

“A company that has to produce a pack of 16 still has to ship it and pack it the same as if they’re producing a pack of 20. So I can’t see how the price will stay the same per tablet,” she said.