Northstar Levothyroxine

[helvella]

On 20th September 2017, I received a reply to an email sent to MHRA.

Dear <helvella>,

Thank you for contacting us with your concerns regarding the Northstar packaging of one or other of the below medicines: -

PL 00142/0104 - Levothyroxine Tablets 50 micrograms

PL 00142/0105 - Levothyroxine Tablets 100 micrograms

Northstar, which is one of the trading names of AAH Pharmaceuticals Limited, is what is known as an own label supplier/distributor. The marketing authorisation holder is Actavis, as you have stated, and they remain wholly responsible for the product(s) on the market (irrespective of the distribution route).

In this case, Actavis use several own label suppliers to distribute their medicine(s) into the market. In the UK, this is a widespread practice, for the distribution of medicines into pharmacies (and general sales outlets).

We hope that the above information is helpful and has alleviated your concerns.

Kind regards,

Product Information Quality unit (Medicines)

VRMM

MHRA

151 Buckingham Palace Road, London, SW1W 9SZ, UK

Tel: [phone]

To report any concern about the label, leaflet or packaging of a medicine, please write to us at: [e-mail]

MHRA has launched a new medicines regulation blog MedRegs blog

gov.uk/mhra

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AAH is owned, along with Lloyds and former Sainsbury pharmacies, by McKesson Europe AG (Celesio AG has officially announced its renaming to McKesson Europe AG, based on the shareholders’ decision at the Annual General Meeting 2017. Which is owned by McKesson of the USA.)

[ As there have been several questions about Northstar levothyroxine, a post simply explaining seemed appropriate. This is it!

Link to a slightly prettier formatted version of the same text:

dropbox.com/s/uhkofka5efcmj... ]

[wightmouse]

So does this mean Almus, Activas and Northstar are all the same so should be interchangeable?

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to wightmouse]

Only the outer card pack differs. Even the Patient Information Leaflet is identical.

I hesitate to accept the word "interchangeable" because that somehow implies at least some difference! But yes - fully.