News

This morning we published an alert from the FDA regarding Protopic, an ointment used to treat common skin problems such as eczema. Another FDA alert regarding Elidel, a similar topical ointment, has been issued.

FDA ALERT [02/14/2005]: FDA is investigating postmarketing reports of lymphoma and skin cancer in children and adults treated with Elidel, but the causal relationship has not been clearly established.

FDA ALERT [2/14/2005]: FDA is investigating postmarketing reports of lymphoma and skin cancer in children and adults treated with Protopic, but a causal relationship has not been established. We are continuing to analyze these reports to determine whether the occurrence of these adverse events affects the risk/benefit assessment of Protopic therapy. Protopic is not approved for use in pediatric patients less than 2 years of age.

Adderall and Adderall XR Information

(Active ingredients: amphetamine aspartate; amphetamine sulfate;
dextroamphetamine saccharate; dextroamphetamine sulfate)

---

FDA ALERT [2/09/2005] – Sudden Deaths in Children
Health Canada has suspended marketing of Adderall XR products from the Canadian market due to concern about reports of sudden unexplained death (SUD) in children taking Adderall and Adderall XR. SUD has been associated with amphetamine abuse and reported in children with underlying cardiac abnormalities taking recommended doses of amphetamines, including Adderall and Adderall XR. In addition, a very small number of cases of SUD have been reported in children without structural cardiac abnormalities taking Adderall.

We had an interesting post by Lj on 2/3/05 about prescribing errors between Reminyl and Amaryl, probably due to the similarity in brand names. See Pill Identification Forum - Reminyl vs Amaryl

On February 8th The FDA Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program published a safety alert regarding Zyprexa and Zyrtec.

Apparently the dispensing errors happened because both medications start with the same two letters, the drugs have the same dosage strengths and each is taken once daily.

We've added two image galleries to our resources:

• Foreign Drug Images
• Domestic Drug Images

If you have an original or public domain photo you want to submit, we'd like to see it. Images of foreign pills are especially wanted since these are hard to identify.