cystagon

[mm45]

Today a woman came into the pharmacy with some bottles of cystagon she we gave her a few days previously for her young daughter. The patient usually opened the capsules and sprinkled the powder over food, as suggested in the BNF for young children. However she noticed that when she open the new batch of capsules inside were solid tablet like formulation, she was worried that the powder had 'gone off' and stuck together. Now I phoned the company and they have changed formulation of the product from powder inside the capsule to the new solid but the solid could be broken up just like a powder and sprinkled, they also said they have recieved several calls regarding this matter.

Has anyone else experienced this? I personally think that this is wrong, when it states in the BNF to sprinkle the powder, or at least they should have put a note on the PIL mentioning the new formulation and what to do in the case of young children.

[Pharmanaut]

Re: cystagon

Today a woman came into the pharmacy with some bottles of cystagon she we gave her a few days previously for her young daughter. The patient usually opened the capsules and sprinkled the powder over food, as suggested in the BNF for young children. However she noticed that when she open the new batch of capsules inside were solid tablet like formulation, she was worried that the powder had 'gone off' and stuck together. Now I phoned the company and they have changed formulation of the product from powder inside the capsule to the new solid but the solid could be broken up just like a powder and sprinkled, they also said they have recieved several calls regarding this matter.

Has anyone else experienced this? I personally think that this is wrong, when it states in the BNF to sprinkle the powder, or at least they should have put a note on the PIL mentioning the new formulation and what to do in the case of young children.

Probably hasn't caught up with the BNF if formulation changed since last edition.
They could have mentioned it in the PIL though.

Another way manufacturers could do this is to call the PMR suppliers - they could add a message on their next drug file update.

If anyone from the PMR suppliers is reading - please put a warning on the system to remind us of this!