How Can You Tell if Your Drug Is Recalled?

If you buy a can of tomatoes or infant formula, you will find a Lot Number and a Use By/Expiration Date. This allows you to instantly identify a product that might have a problem. Supermarkets scan products during check out. If a can of beans is recalled, someone can contact you to bring them back for a refund. Why can’t your pharmacist do that if your drug is recalled? Why can’t you find a lot number on your prescription bottle? 

A Reader Wants to Know About Drug Lot Numbers:

Q. Two years ago, I read an article you wrote about the lack of lot numbers on prescription drug labels. As of today, the problem still exists, in that lot numbers do not appear on individual prescription bottles.

What suggestions do you have to pressure pharmaceutical companies to include the lot number on bottle labels?

I take the blood pressure medicine valsartan. I know that many manufacturers have had to recall this medicine because of contamination.

My pharmacist told me he doesn’t have any knowledge or access to lot number information. Just sign me Frustrated!

A. We share your frustration, but it is a bit more complicated than you think. Pharmaceutical companies must print the lot numbers on all brand name and generic medications they ship to drug stores.

Repacking Pills:

The problem occurs when pharmacists take pills out of big bottles and put them into small amber bottles and print a label with your name on it. During this repackaging process the lot number is lost.

It is less expensive per pill for the pharmacy to buy a bottle with 1000 pills than a bottle with 30 pills. That is why it is so common for people to get a little orange pill bottle that has the pharmacy label rather than the manufacturer’s label.

Because of repackaging, it is nearly impossible for you or your pharmacist to tell whether your drug is recalled. Unlike grocery stores, most pharmacies do not keep an electronic computer record of which patients received which lot numbers of which drugs.

If you doubt us, here is an article we wrote so you can check for yourself. It will test your ability to find a lot number on your bottle of pills:

Why Is Your Prescription Drug Label A Disaster?

If Your Drug Is Recalled What Should You Do?

There have been so many drug recalls over the last year we have lost count. Millions of blood pressure pills like irbesartan, losartan and valsartan have been pulled off pharmacy shelves because of nitrosamine contamination. More recently, bottles of ranitidine (Zantac) have also been recalled.

Some of the companies involved in the recalls include Aurobindo, Camber, Heritage, Macleods, Mylan, Prinston, Sandoz, Solco, Teva and Torrent. Just in case you thought the nitrosamine recalls were over, Torrent Pharmaceuticals announced it was recalling lots of losartan and losartan plus hydrochlorothiazide just a few weeks ago. You can learn more at this link.

Readers Want to Know If Their Drug Is Recalled!

Beverly has taken some action:

“I’ve asked my pharmacy to package my losartan in the original bottle of 90 pills so that I can check the lot number when the next recall is issued. Where can I find the lot numbers covered on the latest recall of Torrent losartan?”

The problem is that when we looked at the Torrent announcement on the FDA’s website we could not locate lot numbers. Here is a link.  The NDC (National Drug Code) is not the same thing as a lot number! Please let us know if you find lot numbers.

Jim has suspicions about his mother’s medicine:

“My mom (age 69) has been diagnosed with stage IV liver and pancreatic cancer. She was taking losartan. It shows up on her pharmacy records. It is a recalled batch for having cancer-causing poison in it. That is the only NDC number she has that is recalled out of 15 other prescriptions so far that she had taken. The FDA has specific lot numbers listed, and I called the pharmacy and they said, ‘Uh, duh, we don’t keep track of that.’

“Before losartan use she had an ultrasound of her abdomen and all organs. That was December of 2016. Everything was fine, and the doctor found nothing wrong with her. I believe she went to be seen for digestion issues. No cancer was found. She lived a happy, active life with no health problems except high blood pressure up until June 2019.

“Losartan use began in November 2017 and finished in February 2019. The recalled batch was taken in March of 2018. I am also convinced that more of her losartan was tainted but it hasn’t been tested yet. In June, 2019, she went to the ER with nausea. The doctor ran some scans and found tumors all over her pancreas and liver.”

“Uh, duh, we don’t keep track of that,” is not an acceptable response to a question about lot numbers. It is past time for Congress to require every pill bottle dispensed in the U.S. to carry a lot number, a true expiration date and the NDC (national drug code). And it is essential for pharmacies to keep track of the lot numbers they dispense. If groceries can do this, why not pharmacies?

Please share your thoughts in the comment section below. While you are at it, please consider going ad-free on this website so we can continue to be your drug watchdog. Here’s our mission. We need your help to continue to stand up to the pharmaceutical industry and the FDA.