How to make sure a drug you’re taking hasn’t been recalled

Could this simple little mistake kill a loved one?

How can something as simple as taking an ibuprofen for a headache turn into a terrible drug reaction?

It can if you’re not taking ibuprofen at all, but instead a risky med used to treat epilepsy.

That’s exactly what could have happened a few weeks ago when hospital workers discovered a mix-up in blister packs containing ibuprofen and oxcarbazepine, a drug used to control epileptic seizures.

And that’s not an isolated incident.

Just-released FDA data is showing that in the last year and a half, there have been as many drugs recalled as in the past nine years combined!

Before the ibuprofen case a pharmacist found a very risky heart med in a bottle of antidepressants. And before that, bottles of an allergy drug were found to contain a high blood pressure pill. And that’s just a fraction of the cases.

So what’s going on here?

It’s called a “problem,” but it sounds more like a horror story.

Some years are worse than others — and 2014 looks like it’s going to take the top prize.

This year we’ve even done better than 2010, which was called “Recall-o-Rama” by one trade pub. They said recalls that year provided 12 months of “solid editorial material” for them to write about.

And this year, it looks like they might run out of months…

But if you don’t subscribe to industry journals, what are the chances you’ll even know about a recall?

Researchers looked at eight years of data from the FDA’s two main reporting systems for recalls. They found a slipshod method of broadcasting this vital information. And that puts anyone taking Rx drugs in grave danger.

And here is what’s really scary:

• In that time period, almost two dozen Class 1 recalls — the most urgent kind — fell through the cracks and didn’t get “communicated” at all.
• A third of those Class 1 recalls during those eight years involved over 100,000 “drug units” that had been distributed all over the country.
• Recalled drugs have included blood thinners, cancer drugs and birth-control pills that turned out to just be placebos.

The FDA’s response to that was to say it uses “many different methods of communicating” recalls, including texting and Twitter.

Right! Let’s all start Tweeting with the FDA to get this life-and-death information!

But, of course, the FDA can only do so much. And that’s because it doesn’t really have the ability to do anything. It seems that all this time we’ve been relying on Big Pharma to honor the “honor system.”

An expert in the field of public health, Dr. Carl Furberg from Wake Forest University, says that the drug companies are “ultimately responsible because the problem is with them.” The FDA, he adds, has no “legal authority to force” a recall.

And earlier this year there was a potentially lethal mistake.

Pfizer “voluntarily” recalled over 104,000 bottles of its antidepressant Effexor XR (including a generic version), after a pharmacist discovered a dangerous heart drug capsule in one of the bottles.

The other drug, Tikosyn, which is used to treat irregular heartbeats, is dangerous enough all on its own. But the two taken together can be a real killer.

So if you’re taking Effexor XR, how would you find out about this deadly error?

Well, if your prescription is with a big chain like CVS or Walgreen’s, by snail mail! That’s right — these companies notify customers about urgent drug recalls by sending them a letter.

But you don’t have to wait for such a letter, or even rely on a tweet or text from the FDA, to protect yourself.

The safest way, of course, is to take as few drugs as possible.

But most of us find ourselves taking some pharmaceuticals at some point. So to be as safe as possible, always check the latest recall information before you start a new prescription or even a refill. Go to here.

It may seem like a pain, but we can’t count on anyone else to think about our safety where drugs are concerned. Those 1-minute clicks just might save your life.

Sources:
“Will 2014 be the biggest year for drug recalls?” Lori Clapper, August 15, 2014, Pharmaceutical Online, pharmaceuticalonline.com

“American Health recalls epilepsy drug and ibuprofen over possible table switch” Eric Palmer, July 21, 2014, FiercePharma, fiercepharmamanufacturing.com

“U.S. has drug recall problem, study says” Carrie Gann, ABC News, abcnews.go.com