The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 274 No 7336 p175
12 February 2005

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· Pharmacy workforce
· Analgesics
· Packaging (2)
· The Society (6)
· CPD
· The Journal

Letters to the Editor

Packaging

Do something about livery design!

From Mr C. J. McKendrick, MRPharmS

“I hate to say I told you so but …” must be one of the most annoying things anyone can hear, partly because it is hurled down on poor unfortunates from the lofty heights of Mount Moral Superiority, but mainly because its intended target has refused to change its actions or behaviour to avoid, what to all casual observers seems, an inevitable head on collision with fate.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that a potentially fatal dispensing error has occurred due to the fact that pharmaceutical companies insist on packing completely different drugs in near identical livery. It is only due to the diligence and professionalism of Britain’s pharmacists that it is not a daily occurrence. However, now that Crescent Pharmaceuticals has made the mistake, literally wholesale, by packing up a whole batch of warfarin 3mg inside boxes labelled bendrofluazide 2.5mg (PJ, 5 February, p142), perhaps the pharmaceutical industry will pull its collective finger out and do something about its package livery design. And perhaps we could be told why it took six months for this error to come to light.

Chris McKendrick
Swindon, Wiltshire

When will the Government and the Society act?

From Mr F. S. Ahmedali, MRPharmS

I am writing in reference to the drug alert received on 27 January concerning Crescent Pharmaceuticals “Packs of bendrofluazide 2.5mg contain blisters of warfarin”. The packs of bendrofluazide 2.5 mg look identical to the warfarin 3mg packs. It seems that the manufacturer has made a serious error and has been confused by its own packs!

It is time the Government and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society acted to stop generic companies from packing their products in similar packs.

Fayaz Ahmedali
Brighton, East Sussex

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