MHRA issues drug alert after drugs mislabelled

Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency

Pharmacists have been warned to be aware of possible wrong labelling on a number of batches of drugs including medicines to treat epilepsy, anxiety and depression.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has issued a drug alert for a number of products produced by Focus Pharmaceuticals warning that an error with barcodes has been discovered on some batches.

It said that when the barcodes are scanned, they may not identify the product. The other product details printed on the carton, including the name, strength and pharmaceutical form of the medicine are correct.

The drugs affected include pregabalin oral solution, trazodone capsules, nortriptyline tablets, nefopam hydrochloride tablets, and dicycloverine tablets and oral solution.

The MHRA has asked any pharmacy that holds this stock to remove it from robotic or automated dispensing systems, and carry out manual dispensing using the written labelling instead.

The MHRA said that there was no risk to the quality of the product from the incorrect barcoding, so the affected batches are not being recalled by the manufacturer.

Last updated
Citation
The Pharmaceutical Journal, MHRA issues drug alert after drugs mislabelled;Online:DOI:10.1211/PJ.2017.20203523

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