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Officials Warn Of Dangerous Drug Name Mix-Ups Such Medication Mishaps Can Be Deadly

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Officials Warn Of Dangerous Drug Name Mix-Ups Such Medication Mishaps Can Be Deadly Image

Jim Williams Reporting

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(CBS) There is an important alert about a new wrinkle in the drug name game.

You’ve been warned about possible mix-ups from medications with similar sounding names.

Now, health officials are sounding the alarm about the exact same names being used for completely different drugs.

Ariola Dixon says she feels blessed her father is alive today, and she’s grateful that a hospital caught a medication mishap.

"I could have lost my dad," she said.

It all started when Ariola’s father was on vacation overseas and ran out of his blood pressure medication called Dilacor.

"He decided to get a refill for his medication," she said.

But soon after arriving home, her dad was rushed to the hospital.

"He felt like he was going to pass out," she said.

Specialists at the hospital say the pills he purchased were having toxic effects on his body, and that while he was given a refill of a drug called Dilacor, it’s actually a totally different medication than the U.S. version.

"The Dilacor that is in the country he went to actually contains a heart failure medication, not the blood pressure medication which he had been receiving," said Lutz, PhD, Drug Information Specialist.

The Institute for Safe Medication practices recently issued a nationwide safety alert after uncovering dozens of foreign drugs with the same exact brand names as U.S. drugs with completely different ingredients and purposes.

For instance, Flomax is the name of a drug used to treat prostate disease in this country, but is a fever and pain reliever in Italy.

Americans gain access to the foreign forms while traveling abroad, and there are new concerns as people increasingly turn to online overseas pharmacies.

"I think the average consumer would be ill advised and unwise to be buying products from those kinds of Web sites," said Dr. Paul Seligman, Food and Drug Administration

The FDA cautions while it has a system to prevent name overlap here in the states, there’s currently no way to review brand names worldwide.

It’s not just prescriptions. Brand name overlap can also be an issue with over the counter drugs.

For example, the Institute for Safe Medication practices says the U.S. version of the sleep aid Sominex has totally different active ingredients than the Sominex sleep aid sold in the U.K.

Getting those two confused could cause drug interaction problems.

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