Be careful with your medication!

Submitted by BenAtkinson on 3 January 2016

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issues warning to dosing errors being made to patients prescribed Noxafil (Posaconazole). These errors to the delayed release tablets and the oral suspension have occurred due to different dosing regimens of the two formulas.

Since November 2013, shortly after the introduction of the delayed release tablet, the FDA received 11 reports of dosing miscalculations being either prescribed / dispensed. This had resulted in one case of hospitalisation and one instance of death. ‘As a result, the FDA has approved outer carton changes to indicate that the two oral formulations cannot be directly substituted for each other but require a dose change’.  Merck, The manufacturer of the drug, has since revised the label to include patient information to alert both patient and health care professionals that the two formulations cannot be interchanged.

The FDA recommends that ‘Prescribers should specify the dosage form, strength, and frequency on all prescriptions they write for Noxafil.  Pharmacists should request clarification from prescribers when the dosage form, strength, or frequency is not specified. Patients should talk to their health care professional before they switch from one oral formulation to the other’.