Printable handout
“Is this gluten-free?” is a question almost no pharmacist can answer from the counter. These three can be. Print this, fill in your details, and hand it over.
Celiac disease — medication request
glutenscreen.org/pharmacy-cardI have coeliac (celiac) disease and follow a strict gluten-free diet for medical reasons. I am not asking you to certify this medication as gluten-free. I am asking three specific questions:
Why it matters: gluten is rare in oral medication and the amounts involved are small, so this is usually a quick reassurance rather than a problem. But a daily medication is a daily exposure, and drug labels are not required to disclose gluten the way food labels are. I would rather ask than assume. I am not asking to stop or change any medication — only to know what is in it.
Most gluten-in-medication anxiety dead-ends because the question asked is unanswerable. A pharmacist cannot certify a product gluten-free — no one can, because drug labels carry no gluten threshold the way food labels do under 21 CFR 101.91. But a pharmacist can read you an inactive ingredient list, can tell you which labeller the bottle came from, and can put a note on your file.
The third question is the one people forget and the one that matters most over time. A prescription that was fine for a year can change at a refill because the pharmacy's supplier changed. Nothing about the prescription looks different when that happens.
This card is a communication aid, not medical advice. Gluten Screen is not a pharmacist, physician or dietitian. Never stop, switch or substitute a prescribed medication because of something you read here — bring the question to your care team, which is exactly what this card is designed to help you do.