The Anonymous Widower

Coeliacs and Tamiflu

I haven’t got the dreaded swineflu yet, but can I be sure that Tamiflu is gluten-free. 

A lot of medicines are not and as an example most cough mixtures contain wheat-derived glucose.  Boots Chesty Cough Linctus is OK, as it is based on sucrose.

I have found some information on the web, one US site says that all Roche products are gluten-free and I’ve also found this list of exgredients for Tamiflu.

Capsule core:

• Pregelatinised starch (derived from maize starch)
• Talc
• Povidone
• Croscarmellose sodium
• Sodium stearyl fumarate

Capsule shell:

• Gelatin
• Yellow iron oxide (E172)
• Red iron oxide (E172)
• Black iron oxide (E172)
• Titanium dioxide (E171)

Printing ink:

• Shellac
• Titanium dioxide (E171)
• FD and C Blue 2 (indigo carmine, E132)

This list just shows what does go into some of the things we take.

I got this information from the Electronic Medicines Compendium.  I tried to search for another couple of drugs at the main site and it worked.

July 3, 2009 - Posted by AnonW | Health, News | Coeliac/Gluten-Free, Drugs