Most UK medicines do not contain any gluten or wheat-based ingredients. The MHRA has clearly been checking medicines for many years now and requires an appropriate statement in Patient Information Leaflets.
If you want to, you can identify the medicines that do contain gluten. This search will find all Patient Information Leaflets (PILs) which contain the word "gluten". (This link will likely not work from outside the UK.) Patient Information Leaflets include a list of all ingredients in Section 6.
https://products.mhra.gov.uk/search/?search=gluten&page=1&doc=Pil&rerouteType=0
The search finds the PILs for all products which contain the word "gluten".
This includes phrasing which excludes significant gluten content such as:
"This medicine contains only very low levels of gluten (from wheat starch). It is regarded as ‘gluten-free’ and is very unlikely to cause problems if you have coeliac disease."
"This product does not contain gluten."
"This product is gluten free."
"skin disorders such as dermatitis herpetiformis which is connected to gluten sensitivity"
Occasionally these apply to only some of the products to which the PIL applies - for example, one flavour but not the others.
The following are some of the few that have, or might have, very low levels of gluten. It needs to be emphasised that some of these are over-the-counter products which could easily be missed.
- Acebutolol Hydrochloride
- Amiloride Hydrochloride
- Co-Amilozide
- Dantrium
- Lioresal (Baclofen)
- Lomustine
- Methylphenidate Hydrochloride
- Nurofen (Ibuprofen) for Children
- Regurin
- Ritalin
- Strefen
- Strepsils
- Weleda Low Mood & Stress Relief Tablets (Homeopathic)
Wheat Allergy
You can do much the same for products which contain wheat.
https://products.mhra.gov.uk/search/?search=%22wheat%22&page=1&doc=Pil&rerouteType=0
The majority of the PILs are those which will already have been found by the "gluten" search.
A few products include a warning like this:
"If you have wheat allergy (different from coeliac disease) you should not take this medicine."
Or a Do Not Take If warning:
"if you are allergic (hypersensitive) to wheat, due to the presence of wheat starch."
Oats, Rye, Barley
It can be more difficult to search for these potential allergens as the characters of the names might appear meaning something entirely different.
Oats https://products.mhra.gov.uk/search/?search=%22oats%22&page=1&doc=Pil&rerouteType=0
Rye https://products.mhra.gov.uk/search/?search=%22rye%22&page=1&doc=Pil&rerouteType=0
Barley https://products.mhra.gov.uk/search/?search=%22barley%22&page=1&doc=Pil&rerouteType=0
No barley products were found last time I checked.
Other Countries
The entire pharmaceutical industry has moved to avoid gluten and wheat ingredients in medicines. Some countries might be ahead of the UK; some behind. But you have to check each and every product if these issues affect you.
For example, the USA's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says:
Medications and Gluten
Based on information available to the Agency, we are aware of no oral drug products currently marketed in the United States that contain wheat gluten or wheat flour intentionally added as an inactive ingredient. We would expect any such product, if it existed, to include wheat gluten or wheat flour in the list of ingredients in its labeling.
https://www.fda.gov/drugs/buying-using-medicine-safely/medications-and-gluten
The EU's European Medicines Agency (EMA) says:
Questions and answers on wheat starch (containing gluten) used as an excipient in medicinal products for human use
https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/wheat-starch-containing-gluten
Coeliac UK - Medication and Gluten
The following link is to my blog entry directly quoting the Coeliac UK website.
https://helvella.blogspot.com/p/coeliac-uk-medication-and-gluten.html
[i][b]helvella - Gluten in UK Medicines[/b]
A short discussion about how to identify the few UK medicines which might contain gluten or wheat (or oats, rye or barley). Also some information about USA and EU.
Last updated 12/02/2025[/i]
Link to blog:
https://helvella.blogspot.com/p/helvella-gluten-in-uk-medicines.html
If you find anything incorrect, misleading, typos, links that don’t work, etc., please let me know. Go to my profile and use the contact details there.
