Drug Recall
There is a nation-wide recall of certain over-the-counter drugs by Novartis Consumer Health, Inc., a manufacturing and packaging plant in Lincoln, Neb.
“NCH is taking this action as a precautionary measure because the products may contain stray tablets, capsules, or caplets from other Novartis products, or contain broken or chipped tablets,” the company said Sunday.
Julie Masow, director of external communications, told KRDO Newschannel 13 the issues were uncovered during the execution of quality and regulatory processes, internal reviews and Food and Drug Administration inspections.
The recall list includes certain Excedrin and NoDoz products with expiration dates of December 20, 2014 or earlier. Specified bottles of Bufferin and Gas-X Prevention products with expiration dates of December 20, 2013 or earlier are also on the recall list. For a complete list of products, reference http://www.novartis-otc.com/otc/index.html
According to the Food and Drug Administration, these over-the-counter drugs “are being recalled because of manufacturing problems that happened at the plant.”
Novartis Consumer Health, Inc. packages products for Endo Pharmaceuticals. According to the FDA, Endo Pharmaceutical reported that they are aware of three product mix-ups. These mistakes were caught by pharmacists prior to being distributed to patients, and involved prescription opiate prescriptions.
“There were problems when these products were packaged and labeled at the site. It is possible that tablets from one product may have been retained in the packaging machinery and may have carried over into the packaging of another product,” said the FDA.
According to the FDA, unlike the over-the-counter medications, prescription medications are not being recalled because pharmacists would be able to distinguish any stray pills prior to distributing the product to patients.
The FDA said that the actuality that there are stray pills in the recalled over-the-counter products is very low.
For more information on the recall, call 1-888-477-2403. Representatives are available between Monday and Friday, from 7 a.m. until 6 p.m..
