levothyroxine 25mcg in brown medicine bottles

[Nat107]

Hi All we have on our notes 3 of us from 1 family, no Teva to be given, but recently have been receiving our 25mcg levo in the brown dispensing bottles which we have never had before. I’m hoping the chemist isn’t popping out Teva to prevent us knowing what brand they are. Has anyone else had theirs in unbranded medicine bottle tia

[SlowDragon Administrator]

You should not accept any medications that don’t include a PIL leaflet with information on exactly which brand it is, and ingredients etc

[Nat107 in reply to SlowDragon]

I didn’t no as we get ours delivered and that’s the way they came

Pic levo

[Jaydee1507 Administrator]

Can you post a photo of the pills? I'm just wondering what markings they have on them that would identify which brand they are.

[Nat107 in reply to Jaydee1507]

👍

25 mcg levo

[Jaydee1507 Administrator in reply to Nat107]

The good news is thats not Teva. Perhaps helvella can identify the brand?

[Nat107 in reply to Jaydee1507]

Great thank you

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK]

Re the Patient Information Leaflet - note the underlined bit:

MHRA - Patient Information Leaflet

The MHRA requirements for Patient Information Leaflets are below.

Note:

There are no exceptions.

Being 'easy to understand' immediately implies that they must be available at least in English regardless where the medicine was made or from where it has been imported.

Patient Information Leaflets (PILs)

Unless all the information is on the pack, all medicines must include a PIL, regardless of how patients get them. PILs must:

be easy to understand

not contain personal information that can identify an individual, including names of staff members or digital signatures

Each product authorised under a marketing authorisation must have its own leaflet as explained in our best practice guidance on patient information leaflets. Also see MHRA guidance document always read the leaflet - getting the best information with every medicine

Our assessment of PILs includes a review of the font, colours, text size and layout of the information to assure the accessibility and readability of the statutory information.

gov.uk/guidance/medicines-p...

It is not at the pharmacist's discretion whether or not to include a PIL. It is 100% mandatory. And a PIL should be provided each and every time your prescription is dispensed. And the PIL must be for the specific product you are getting.

Furthermore, in case of any issues with the product, you should get the batch number and expiration date. Otherwise how can you properly report such an issue?

That should be tackled straight-away.

Regarding identification even without the relevant PIL, my medicine document has sufficient description of pill markings to make this quite simple.

helvella's medicines documents (UK and Rest of the World) can be found here:

helvella - Thyroid Hormone Medicines

helvella has created, and tries to maintain, documents containing details of all thyroid hormone medicines in the UK and, in less detail, many others around the world.

This link takes you to a page which has direct links to the documents from Dropbox and Google Drive, and QR codes to make it easy to access from phones.

The UK document contains up-to-date versions of the Summary Matrix for tablets, oral solutions and liothyronine available in the UK.

helvella.blogspot.com/p/hel...

From time to time, pharmacists do have to dispense from bulk containers. But it should not be the usual approach.

[Nat107 in reply to helvella]

Thank you Helvella, I can’t download from the drop down box as only in my phone. We haven’t take. Any and done without and just taken our 100mcg which we shouldn't of, these are just 25 and LC on other of tablet

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK]

Are you quite sure about the letters?

(I'm trying not to prompt you and, possibly,mislead you.)

[Nat107 in reply to helvella]

I have managed the Google drive letter, so I’m getting mercury pharma so that will ok thank you very much helvella