Borderline substances are nutritional or dermatological products that have been specially formulated to manage medical conditions.
In certain conditions, some foods and toilet preparations have characteristics of drugs. The Advisory Committee on Borderline Substances (ACBS) advises as to the circumstances in which such substances may be regarded as drugs.
The Advisory Committee's recommendations are listed in the Borderline Substance list in Part XV of the Drug Tariff.
This list is presented in two ways:
- a list of products and the conditions they’re prescribed for
- a list of conditions and the products which can be used to treat them
Endorsement
Prescriptions for products recommended by the Committee should be endorsed ‘ACBS’.
If the ACBS endorsement is not included on an FP10 prescription it will not affect how it’s processed. The products in the ACBS list are recommendations made by the ACBS and prescriptions issued in accordance with the Committee's advice and endorsed ‘ACBS’ will not normally be investigated.
For EPS2 prescriptions, the prescriber must use the ACBS endorsement option on their prescribing system.