Recent news coming from the health care industry have surely made patients worry about the guys in charge of their well-being. A particular significant news should make a lot fret with what their medication bottles actually contain. Novartis decided to recall some Excedrin, NoDoz, Bufferin and Gas-X Sunday bottles over concerns their contents might include something other than just medication.

Recently, Novartis decided to temporarily suspend production in its Lincoln, Nebraska plant. The company said the output is suspended on account of “maintenance and other improvement activities”. However, soon after that statement, the company announced it had to pull off some bottles of Excedrin, NoDoz, Bufferin and Gas-X Sunday over concerns the containers could contain pills from other medicines or chipped and broken tablets.

Therefore, some of the bottles of the Excedrin medicine, usually taken for headaches, as well as caffeine caplets NoDoz with expiration dates December 20, 2014 or earlier will be recalled. Certain packages of Bufferin, taken for pain, and Gas-X, meant for stomach issues, having expiration dates of December 20, 2013 or earlier will be recalled.

U.S. consumers are asked to either destroy or return unused product that meet the specifications above. So far, there have been no related adverse reactions reported by consumers. You can find more information on the affected bottle sizes and related expiry dates at www.novartisOTC.com. Throughout the recall procedure, the company will be working closely under the monitoring of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Novartis said it became aware of the problem during an internal review. The company said that they have discovered broken and chipped pills, inconsistent bottle packaging and came to the conclusion that mixed pills in an Excedrin bottle is likely. The company warns:

“Mixing of different products in the same bottle could result in consumers taking the incorrect product and receiving a higher or lower strength than intended or receiving an unintended ingredient”. As a result, overdose or allergic reaction are highly likely to occur.
Joseph Jimenez, CEO of Novartis, declared: “We are committed to a single quality standard for the entire Novartis Group and we are making the necessary investments and committing the right resources to ensure these are implemented across our entire network”.