{"id":407341,"date":"2010-03-09T10:59:37","date_gmt":"2010-03-09T15:59:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aboutlawsuits.com\/?p=8776"},"modified":"2010-03-09T10:59:37","modified_gmt":"2010-03-09T15:59:37","slug":"kapidex-medication-errors-spark-name-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/407341","title":{"rendered":"Kapidex Medication Errors Spark Name Change"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The FDA has approved a name change for the heartburn drug Kapidex, after receiving reports of pharmacists confusing it with other drugs. <span id=\"more-8776\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Approved by the FDA in January 2009, Kapidex (dexlansoprazole) is a proton pump inhibitor approved for treatment of heartburn and acid reduction.  It is manufactured by Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Inc.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fda.gov\/NewsEvents\/Newsroom\/PressAnnouncements\/ucm203096.htm\" >FDA name change approval<\/a>\u00a0was issued on March 4, indicating that Kapidex will become known as Dexilant in late April.  The medication will also receive a new National Drug Code number, but no other changes will be made to the drug.<\/p>\n<p>The Kapidex name will be changed to avoid <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youhavealawyer.com\/malpractice\/prescription-error-medication-mistake.html\">medication errors<\/a>\u00a0where it may be confused with AstraZeneca\u2019s Casodex, which is used to treat prostate cancer by reducing male hormones, or Actavis\u2019s Kadian, a morphine-based pain killer. <\/p>\n<p>Although there have been no reports of injuries or deaths associated with mixing up the medications, incorrect use of Kadian (morphine sulfate extended release) in particular could lead to a morphine overdose if it were confused for heart burn pills. Morphine is an opioid which can lead to a fatal overdose if too much medication is taken. A morphine overdose can cause respiratory depression and low blood pressure.<\/p>\n<p>The confusion over medication names was identified as part of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aboutlawsuits.com\/fda-program-targets-medication-problems-6787\/\">FDA\u2019s Safe Use Initiative<\/a>, which started in November. The initiative is designed to reduce the number of preventable medication errors.<\/p>\n<p>FDA officials said all drug names are evaluated before they go on the market, and FDA reviewers did not expect Kapidex to be confused with Casodex or Kadian.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Institute of Medicine and FDA, there are 1.5 million <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youhavealawyer.com\/blog\/2009\/08\/17\/prescription-mistake-lawyers\/\">preventable medication injuries<\/a>\u00a0in the U.S. each year, which add an additional $4 billion to the cost of health care. About 60,000 children are seen in emergency rooms nationwide each year due to accidental drug ingestion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The FDA has approved a name change for the heartburn drug Kapidex, after receiving reports of pharmacists confusing it with other drugs. Approved by the FDA in January 2009, Kapidex (dexlansoprazole) is a proton pump inhibitor approved for treatment of heartburn and acid reduction. It is manufactured by Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Inc. The FDA [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3957,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-407341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3957"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407341\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}