The pharmacist who triggered the Furosemide alert confirms that he did find a sleeping pill in a box of the diuretic from the Teva laboratory.
On Friday June 7, 2013, a pharmacist from Saint-Malo gave the alert on a packaging error within the Teva laboratory. Indeed, following a defect detected by a patient who had found a tablet of the sleeping pill Zopiclone in one of his boxes of Furosemide, the pharmacist in question immediately proceeded to extract the tablets from the boxes of Furosemide reported by the patient. He thus claimed to have found a second tablet of zopiclone Teva in a blister pack of lot Y176. Despite the questioning of his statements, this pharmacist had wished to remain anonymous.
But, for the first time, he spoke today at the microphone of France 3.
First of all, he confirms his side of the story. “I opened all the Furosemide tablets one after the other. It was on the last tablet that I found the zopiclone tablet ”. To the journalist who addresses the rumor of a sleeping pill lost on the counter, the pharmacist responds without hesitation: “it is not possible, when you take out a tablet, you have to force it a little. The orpecules were well closed, he adds, adding, the counter was clean and we are not selling this drug there ”. No change to report on the side of this pharmacist, his version is the same from the beginning.
Faced with this alert, the National Medicines Safety Agency (Ansm) had ordered an inspection of the Teva establishment in Sens in which the different batches of Furosemide were packaged. The first findings “did not identify any major defect in the organization, practices or equipment likely to lead the health authorities to interrupt the activity of the site”, specified the Agency on June 11.
For its part, the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office has opened an additional investigation to explore other avenues.
Finally, still at the request of the Ansm, the Teva company is still carrying out a systematic verification under the supervision of a bailiff of the boxes of Furosemide recovered as part of the recall. As of June 18 in the evening, 2374 boxes have been examined, or more than 70,000 tablets. No non-compliant tablet was detected. Conclusion of the Agency, “the elements available to Ansm do not, to date, identify other cases of substitution of Zopiclone tablets in boxes of Furosemide Teva 40 mg, apart from the case having triggered the alert ”. The mystery of the improperly packaged box of Furosemide remains unsolved!
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