
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 30, 1990                   TAG: 9003300314
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

MISLABELED BOTTLES BRING FDA RECALL

The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday that two lots of an anti-depressant drug called desipramine are being recalled because some bottles may contain a blood-thinner that could cause serious bleeding.

The manufacturer, Pharmaceutical Basics Inc. of Denver, told the FDA it was recalling the products after distributor H.L. Moore of New Britain, Conn., found a mislabeled bottle of the drug earlier this week.

The bottle was labeled as containing 25 milligrams of desipramine but it contained 5 milligram tablets of warfarin, a blood-thinner. About six other manufacturers make despiramine.

The FDA said people taking the anti-depressant should examine their tablets to see if any are marked with the name warfarin.

Warfarin is a non-coated pink tablet with "5" on one side and "832" and the word "warfarin" on the other side. Desipramine is a coated, lavender tablet with the numbers "832" and G254" imprinted on it.

Carl Peck, director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, warned that if people taking four to eight tablets a day of desipramine took the same number of warfarin tablets, "in the worst case, they could experience severe bleeding, such as stomach or intracranial hemorrhage."

by CNB