EPIPEN RECALL - 3/17

[hezzier]

Well, I just had an interesting call.  I drive to a military installation to get our epi pens and their pharmacy just called looking for DS.  I said I was his mother and that she needed to speak with him...my response was that he's 12.  So then she proceeds to tell me about the epi pen recall and wants to go over all the lot numbers.  I give her the first ones and she says that it's on the list and I said but the NDC # doesn't match and she said they were only going by lot numbers.  So I was instructed to bring them to the pharmacy and they will replace them.  I need to go get DD's epi pen prescription filled anyway so I'm glad I hadn't already done that.

[YouKnowWho]

Our store called us to let me know that my son's was recalled.  But I have to go through the fun of calling the company handling the the recall.  I will do that early next week in hopes wait times drop.

[MaryM]

I am on hold again.  The wait time was 23 minutes when I called.  I am down to 14.  Fingers crossed that my phone does not go bonkers again.

[hezzier]

Pharmacy replaced recalled epi pens today. 

[spacecanada]

My pharmacy called me to check my lot numbers, none of which were part of the recall.  Here, you just bring the recalled EpiPens to the pharmacy and they give you a new one.  They deal with all the exchange stuff right there. 

[PurpleCat]

Still not replaced....still working on it.  Our CVS pharmacist is working on it...it is not CVS.  At least not mine.  They can't get the replacement epi pens.

Also, the company has been so slow sending documentation and emailing info that yesterday, the woman Mylan connected me with gave me all the numbers over the phone to give to the pharmacist.  I could care less at this point when they send me the box for returns...I want new epi pens.

Armed with both RX and voucher numbers and a promise of a big direct delivery from Mylan of epi pens, my pharmacist hopes to have Epi's for me on Friday or next Tuesday.

Meanwhile I need my own spinner!  Twiddling my thumbs instead....

[PurpleCat]

CVS pharmacist got us one twin pack last night!  She really went out of her way to be sure we had one to start.  I picked it up when they opened at 8:00.

She is still expecting her big shipment to come later today or next Tuesday.  She will finish the order then.

So nice of her!

[PurpleCat]

CVS got me the other two twin packs yesterday!  Finally!  Went to the school this morning to exchange for recalled ones.  Feeling protected again.

[my3guys]

According to an article on MSNBC, more epipen recalls are coming!!! Claims are that all complaints haven't been investigated and defective product was left on shelves. I can't link article right now but I will later.

[rebekahc]

Here's a link to an ongoing discussion. At some point we may want to merge these threads...

EpiPen Serious Manufacturing Violations

[my3guys]

Thanks for linking.

[ajasfolks2]

Are there more serial / lot numbers recalled now?  Wanting to be sure son has enuf supposedly ok Epipens for now.

[nyguy]

Are there more serial / lot numbers recalled now?  Wanting to be sure son has enuf supposedly ok Epipens for now.

No new recalls but my faith in Mylan at this point is gone.

Sanofi/Intelliject (Intelliject renamed them selves to Kaleo) had a little over a couple dozen reports of malfunctions (with no fatalities) and they hard stop did a full recall of Auvi-Q, with Sanofi reverting the rights to Kaleo, Kaleo doing a post-mortem and making sweeping manufacturing/testing changes, and bringing it back to market.

Meridian (making the drug) had hundreds of reports of issues including multiple deaths. In certain cases, they confirmed that deformed/malfunctioning specific components were at fault, and then did not look to see if other units in the same lot had the same defective component or issue a recall.

The fact that EpiPen has been around for decades is no comfort because it was redesigned in 2009 and the year of a redesign says nothing about the continuous quality of an autoinjector, failures and manufacturing defects can happen at any time. If they aren't adequately QCing them, randomly auditing lots, and then properly assessing product failures and erring on the side of caution for recalls then I don't have any confidence that newer lots are necessarily properly built.

Since I have commercial insurance and can get Auvi-Q for free, that's where my faith is. If not, I would look to get covered for the generic from Lineage.