June 10, 2008 - 2:14pm
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ETHEX Corporation notified healthcare professionals of a voluntary recall of a single lot of morphine sulfate 60 mg extended release tablets (Lot No. 91762) due to a report of a tablet with twice the appropriate thickness. Oversized tablets may contain as much as two times the labeled level of active morphine sulfate. The lot was distributed by ETHEX Corporation under an "ETHEX" label between April 16th and April 27th of 2008. Opioids such as morphine have life-threatening consequences if overdosed. Consequences can include respiratory depression (difficulty or lack of breathing), and low blood pressure. Many patients for whom this product is prescribed are likely to be highly debilitated with reduced strength or energy as a result of illness, and may be less likely to determine that a tablet is overweight or oversized than an unimpaired individual. If consumers have any questions about the recall, they should call their physician, pharmacist, or other health care provider.
Read the MedWatch 2008 safety summary, including a link to the firm's press release regarding this issue at:
http://www.fda. gov/medwatch/ safety/2008/ safety08. htm#Morphine
http://www.fda. gov/medwatch/ safety/2008/ safety08. htm#Morphine
July 4, 2008 - 1:24pm
#2
I doubt there is a way to tell who got what
Sad to say that there is probably no way to figure that out. And what makes it worse is that there is a law that says that the pharmacies cant put it into the manufactures bottles. Whatever that is meant to do. Stupid idiots with all this micromanaged government rules.
July 4, 2008 - 2:34pm
#3
Warning
I moved to Arizona last Oct/07-I lived in Illinois, this is such a coincedence in the mail I received a letter from my old pharmacy(yesterday) and they sent out letters to all their customers. I was going to make a post today. I'm glad you did so FLGIRLINPAIN, thank you. I have to say good job to my old pharmacy- letters to all customers is a huge endeavor and a really excellent thing to do. Have a good 4th of July to all!!
July 31, 2008 - 3:38am
#4
ill tell you... youd think
ill tell you... youd think of the MILLIONS possibly BILLIONS of dollars this company is making, they just cant seem to do this right... i could see a misrepresentation of the potential for abuse (purdue pharma. or even not producing enough of the tablets for national distribution. but to "double stack" a MS tablet, is not only extremely careless, its a hole in the system for ethex, i would think carefully about this right here next time you see the little ETH on your tablet. its bad enough we cant trust all the doctors now, but the company will kill due to this problem. their purpose is simple, make meds safe and effective for individuals needing so. i dont see where its so hard for a billion dollar organization to do what they are supposed to be doing!! kind of enraged at the ignorance
October 9, 2008 - 6:31pm
#5
Thanks for the RECALL Post
I checked with the Wal-Mart Corporation. I spoke with Mr. Shiva Bozart and he said that they continually receive reports and recalls. He said that most recalls are identified in the warehouse. To insure that all drugs are safe they are normally stored in a special warehouse for 30 days. Few recalls make it to the store, very few.
BRUCE JONES
December 4, 2008 - 8:23pm
#6
I'm glad to hear that most
I'm glad to hear that most recalls of drugs don't make it to the stores. On a side note, someone taking 60mg of morphine already has a fairly high tolerance and I highly doubt the pills would be lethal even if they contained 120mg of morphine unless the extended release matrix is compromised. Mistakes happen and no matter how much a company makes is irrelevant. Obviously a machine messed up, this is a mechanical problem most likely and it would be next to impossible for a company to check every single pill in every single batch. It is an honest mistake and the company is taking the appropriate measures to take care of the problem.
February 13, 2009 - 1:35pm
#7
would it be an honest mistake
would it be an honest mistake if someone you loved was affected by this negligance?
February 22, 2009 - 2:29am
#8
WOW
Honest mistake or not, you're taking people's lives into your hands when you manufacture drugs of this caliber. If you take on that responsibility, you take on the responsibility to make sure EVERY pill is within the guidelines set forth for that particular medicine. I'm actually on Morphine 60mg ER and my regular pharmacy gives out the Ethex brand (they used to give out the Mallinkroft (spelling?) brand. However, I find that the Ethex brand was very inconsistent in relieving my pain. Some days it worked fine, other days I felt no relief, and some days I totally felt like I got 10 times too much! I never get that with the Mallinkroft brand. So I fill my opioid presciptions elsewhere while still letting my regular pharmacy know I'm on them. I honestly am really glad I stuck with not getting the Ethex brand after seeing this. Now I'm actually questioning if my batch was one of the ones recalled....
April 17, 2009 - 8:57am
#9
I find it hard to believe
I find it hard to believe that a pharmaceutical company can't or won't check EVERY pill for accuracy...If you've been in any kind of manufacturing plant, and hang around the business long enough, you should know that there are systems out there that can scan every pill for size, shape, color and kick out the bad ones. Heck, they even use this at potato chip factories to kick out the burnt chips....I think this is because they don't make very many errors, and don't want to have to eat the cost of purchasing the systems and the cost of the pills it kicks out for being "different" for some reason....Thanks Ray
I hope the pharms have a way of figuring out who got the meds from that lot so they can notify the proper people in time before they ingest the large quantities of medication!
I'm a social worker, not a medical professional. All comments and thoughts are simply my opinion and experience.