NZ Guild faces up to recall
August 27, 2010
THE New Zealand Medicines
and Medical Devices Safety
Authority Medsafe has advised of a
patient level recall of one batch of
Novo Nordisk’s GlucaGen Hypokit
1mg injection.
Indicated for the treatment of
hypoglycaemia the GlucaGen
Hypokit 1mg injection requires
patients to reconstitute the injection
before use.
The recall was instated by
Medsafe after it received reports of
cracks in some of the syringes that
are used for reconsitiution.
These cracks have the potential
to result in leakage or microbial
contamination, Medsafe said.
The affected batch number is
YW60362 and has an expiry date
of Nov 2011.
Medsafe is urging NZ community
pharmacists to contact all patients
who have had the affected batch
dispensed to them, to get them to
return the product immediately for
a replacement.
Approximately 1,588 units are
estimated to be in distribution.
MEANWHILE, despite his
ongoing medicine recall litigation,
Pharmacy Guild of New Zealand
President Ian Johnson has advised
pharmacists to not delay the recall
process in favour of discussions
regarding recompense.
“Community pharmacists’
primary concern is patient safety,”
said Johnson.
This is the fifth medicine recall in
NZ for 2010, and in line with its
argument that pharmacists should
not have to work extra hours for
free and take time away from their
own business to fix others mess, the
NZ Guild is advising members to
keep a record of their time and
costs chewed up through the recall,
and to send a bill to Novo Nordisk
for “the recall service provided at
the company’s request”.
“Expecting the work to be done
for free is nonsense,” said NZ Guild
Chief Executive, Annabel Young.
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