(Image Source: Excedrin)
BY LAUREN ZIMA
Pharmaceutical company Novartis AG is issuing a voluntary recall for several over-the-counter medicines that were produced in its Nebraska plant. Here’s WHTM.
“The company that makes Excederin, NoDoz, Bufferin and Gas-X has suspended production at its Nebraska plant. Some of those products contain chipped or broken tablets or stray pills from other medicines. This voluntary recall for Excedrin and NoDoz have an expiration date of Dec. 20, 2014. The recall for Bufferin and Gas-X have an expiration date of Dec. 20, 2013.”
The plant was shut down last month. Novartis was first alerted to problems after consumers reported the broken and flat-out wrong tablets in their bottles. The company is offering a refund to anyone who bought the products, but NPR says -- what took so long?
“ … Food and Drug Administration inspectors alleged numerous problems at the Nebraska plant last year. Since 2009, Novartis ‘failed to adequately investigate’ 166 complaints about pill mix-ups, the FDA said. And when the company did mount investigations, they didn't go far enough, the agency said, citing examples involving mix-ups of Excedrin Migraine caplets, tablets and gelcaps.”
Now, Novartis is working with the FDA on the recall. Fox News notes how the mistakes will affect the company financially.
“This recall will be costly for Novartis. They’re taking a fourth quarter charge of $120 million and the factory shutdown affects 620 employees plus about 200 temporary workers. But the Nebraska facility accounts for less than 2 percent of the company’s revenue. The drug maker had sales of $50.6 billion last year.”
The Food and Drug Administration is also warning some of those over-the-counter pills may have accidentally been packaged with prescription painkillers made at the same facility -- those are Percocet, Endocet, Opana and Zydone. But, the FDA is not recalling the prescription drugs, it says, because they are medically necessary and the likelihood they contain stray over-the-counter pills is low.
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