So, here's a little advisory that has nothing to do with stocks or investments - check your pills and make sure they are what you think they are.
I opened a fresh (sealed) bottle of cetirizine (a common antihistamine). Mixed in among the pills was a tramadol (a medium-powered opioid painkiller). The two pills are virtually identical apart from the numbering.
It would not have been all that serious had I not noticed, but who knows how often this happens? And how often does it happen with something much more serious? In any case, I guess it's a good reminder that just because the bottle is sealed at the factory, that doesn't guarantee that the factory still didn't screw up.
7 comments:
This sort of thing should never, ever happen. There are multiple quality control steps that should insure it doesn't. Was this bottled for sale by the company or filled to order at the pharmacy? In either case, call the pharmacy and let them know it happened and they should report it further. They should have records of what was filled and when (did they fill the other drug script at or near to yours?), and also if they fill from a bulk stock they should do a lot check on that as well. Please do report it.
It was bottled for sale by the company (no pharmacy). It was a regular over-the-counter bottle of cetirizine with this little "surprise" included.
Report it with the lot number to the manufacturer, who should also log it with the FDA (you can report it there as well). These items can become a big deal.
http://www.pharmalot.com/2010/10/glaxo-to-pay-750m-for-manufacturing-fraud/
Thanks. Will do.
I have the habit of counting the pills in the bottle, even though it is factory sealed. On one occasion, I found it to be one pill short. They were not cheap pills (a brand-name non-generic medication) so I complained to the pharmacy and was re-imbursed.
P-I,
Pharmacists usually count out from a bulk stock. They generally count, fill, then empty and recount (at least). OTC products come off assembly lines and are generally QC'd by weight i.e. rapid pass over a scale that gives an under / overweight warning, and kicks out the bottle for inspection if it fails the spec. There is enough variability in the bottle mass and thus wiggle in the weight spec that a single pill probably wouldn't trigger a problem.
Yeah ... but it's weird to think that tramadol and cetirizine would be on the same lines.
I suppose one theory could be that the use the same filling/bottling line for multiple products and a single pill got retained/stuck in the hopper and thrown out when the cetirizine product came through.
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