Generic drugs online

Source: Trinidad & Tobago Express

Date: 17-Jan-2008

Author: Rohandra John

Patients in possession of the drug Prexige, which is commonly used to treat osteoarthritis, are being advised by the Ministry of Health to discontinue using this medication because it can cause serious liver complications.

The ministry, in a statement issued yesterday, advised people in possession of the drug, which is also used for acute treatment of pain and inflammation during menstrual periods, to return the product to the pharmacy of purchase.

Prexige tablets have been on the shelves in Trinidad and Tobago since July 2006, the ministry said.

The drug, which is manufactured by Swiss giant Norvatis Pharmaceuticals, had been recalled in Canada-its place of origin, Switzerland and all European countries since November 2007. But up until Wednesday, a number of local pharmacies and drugstore outlets were said to be unaware of the recall and were still offering the product for sale.

President of the Pharmacy Board, Andrew Rahaman, said yesterday this was because some of the pharmacies had not received a release which was being circulated by the Food and Drugs Division that was meant to inform them of the drug recall. Several of them thus remained ignorant of the situation.

"Normally it is the distributors that would firstly send out the necessary notification and they would instruct their sales person to go around to each pharmacy to collect the recalled items, so that you find that every one is made aware, but this recall was done a bit differently in that the Food and Drug Division acted first," he said.

Rahaman, however, said the word was getting around and most of the pharmacies were now aware of the recall.

The Express visited a number of the local drugstores and pharmaceutical outlets in Port of Spain yesterday, and was informed by their personnel that the Prexige tablets had been pulled off the shelf after they were notified of the recall this week.

Michele Staggs, sales and marketing director of Smith Robertson Ltd, which distributes the product locally, said while the company had only received an official letter from the manufacturers regarding the recall yesterday morning, it had already stopped selling the drug on Wednesday, after the Food and Drugs Division issued a letter on the suspension of sales.

In a telephone interview with the Express, Staggs said the distributor was now issuing notification letters to all the outlets and had also begun the process of collecting the drug. Staggs assured that all pharmacies and patients who purchased the drug would be compensated for their loss.