A recent study report by Consumer Reports Health said that information in drug label lacked important safety warnings. It was also found that some pharmacies failed to comply with law that requires dispatching drug-guide with medicine.
Consumer Reports Health sent their officers to five top local pharmacies as a part of its investigational program known as "spot check". CRH officers went to refill prescription for the drug Warfarin at fice different pharmacies. Warfarin is one of top selling drugs in USA. It is prescription only anticoagulant drug; it is indicated to prevent blood clotting.
The report is seen as alarming as federal law makes it mandate for pharmacies to provide drug guide along with medicine. It is highly risky to provide prescription drugs without guide. Drug guide is guidelines which include usage, indication, and safety precautions information. All the pharmacies maintained their patient information (which is also must by law), differences were found in safety guidance provided by FDA on Warfarin drug. Accordingly to FDA, Warfarin can lead to deadly health condition if taken with alcohol. Warfarin interacts with alcohol and causes bleeding which may result to death.
Federal law requires drug label for OTC drugs and drug-guide for prescription drugs. Drug label is information which is written in such a way that even laymen can understand (i.e. not using medical terms which are difficult to understand).
CRH also brought into attention that drug labels were also improper and lacked important precautionary information. The investigation was carried out in pharmacies located in New York City only.
Lisa Gill of Consumer Report Health blames lack of specific regulation for such serious issue. Unlike nutrition information provided on food package, there is no such information provided for medicines. Furthermore, FDA does require pharma companies to print drug-label with medicine, but, it does not monitor accuracy of information.
Read more about report
Consumer Reports Health sent their officers to five top local pharmacies as a part of its investigational program known as "spot check". CRH officers went to refill prescription for the drug Warfarin at fice different pharmacies. Warfarin is one of top selling drugs in USA. It is prescription only anticoagulant drug; it is indicated to prevent blood clotting.
The report is seen as alarming as federal law makes it mandate for pharmacies to provide drug guide along with medicine. It is highly risky to provide prescription drugs without guide. Drug guide is guidelines which include usage, indication, and safety precautions information. All the pharmacies maintained their patient information (which is also must by law), differences were found in safety guidance provided by FDA on Warfarin drug. Accordingly to FDA, Warfarin can lead to deadly health condition if taken with alcohol. Warfarin interacts with alcohol and causes bleeding which may result to death.
Federal law requires drug label for OTC drugs and drug-guide for prescription drugs. Drug label is information which is written in such a way that even laymen can understand (i.e. not using medical terms which are difficult to understand).
CRH also brought into attention that drug labels were also improper and lacked important precautionary information. The investigation was carried out in pharmacies located in New York City only.
Lisa Gill of Consumer Report Health blames lack of specific regulation for such serious issue. Unlike nutrition information provided on food package, there is no such information provided for medicines. Furthermore, FDA does require pharma companies to print drug-label with medicine, but, it does not monitor accuracy of information.
Read more about report
No comments:
Post a Comment