Nurofen Plus alert: painkiller packs mistakenly contain anti-psychotic drugs

[alp227]

Source: Press Association

People are being warned to check packs of Nurofen Plus after it emerged that thousands of them could mistakenly contain anti-psychotic drugs.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) issued a safety alert following reports that some batches of Nurofen Plus contain individual blister packs of another drug, Seroquel XL 50mg.

The mix-up is believed to have happened at a wholesalers and thousands of packs could potentially be affected, prompting the MHRA to urge extra vigilance.

The packs have been found in pharmacies across the UK.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/aug/25/nurofen-plus-warning

[Lone_Star_Dem]

1. As an aside, I believe it's not sold in the US market

Not that that makes this any less horrific, but it may be pertinent to conversation in the thread.

[mwooldri]

2. Correct: Nurofen is not sold in the Americas.

Nurofen - big pharma branded ibuprofen.

[Spider Jerusalem]

5. Correct

Nurofen Plus wouldn't be sold in the US even if Nurofen were; Nurofen Plus is 200mg ibuprofen + 12.8mg codeine (over the counter in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, would probably be prescription only in the States).

[truthisfreedom]

3. Ugh, pharmacalogical mixups can be a nightmare. I was once given what was supposed to be Doxycycline

antibiotic for an infection and the script was so messy I was given Doxepin instead, at the maximum dosage. I was completely out of it for two days before I figured out what was wrong.

[Seedersandleechers]

4. With "messy" prescriptions

or ineligible ones, it's the pharmacists job to call the physician for clarification. You are lucky you weren't hurt.

[Heywood J]

7. I think that's why I've seen advice for doctors to write

"to treat infection" or "to lower cholesterol" on the prescription, in order to help with that sort of mix-up.

[undergroundpanther]

6. Incompetant

WTF?! I can't take anti-psychotics Already have permanent twitchy legs and Seraquel has a big black box warning,and it don't do shit for pain.It is not exactly the safer of the anti-psychotics either.I wonder if the Nurofen pain meds and seraquel taken together by people who did not know or were in so much pain they couldn't check, would have killed people.