Fourth recall in five months rattles pharmacy

27 May 2010

The fourth consumer level recall of a prescription medicine in the past five months has rattled community pharmacy due to the additional burden it places on their daily workload, with no compensation.

Pharmacy has been asked to replace even the 50mg tablets of the cardiac drug, Pacific Atenolol, that they had supplied to patients just a few weeks ago as an alternative to the previously recalled 50mg tablets of the same brand. The latest recall includes both 50mg and 100mg strengths of Mylan NZ’s Pacific Atenolol.

“(The recall) makes it clear that it is very important to get a decision form a judge, albeit from the district court in the first instance, about the (pharmacists’) right to be paid for services provided,” Pharmacy Guild chief executive Annabel Young says.

“It is not acceptable for the problems of the medicines companies to be made into a burden that is imposed on community pharmacists, without any compensation. This is undermining the public-private partnership that is at the heart of community pharmacy.”

Pharmacy Today is awaiting details from Medsafe on the specific patient safety issues involved in the recent consumer level recalls and clinical justification behind them. That will hopefully make it clear what could happen if some patients do not come forward to return their medicine supplies to a pharmacy.

Also, how successful have the previous recalls been in terms of reaching all patients who were taking the recalled medicine? We will keep you posted.

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