TGA Medicines Safety Update

The Therapeutic Goods Administration has provided its latest Medicines Safety Update with a summary of hanges to date around medicine naming policies.  A number of medicine ingredient names are being changed to align with names used internationally as part of an international harmonisation program announced last year. 

The four year transition period for the changes will run from now until April 2020, with some changes minor such as changing a ‘y’ to an ‘i’ and will not affect pronunciation.  More significant changes include the treatment of adrenaline and noradrenaline which will remain as approved names in Australia, with the international name (epinephrine and norepinephrine respectively) in brackets after the name.

New ingredient names will start to appear on medicine labels, in product information and consumer medicine information leaflets as well as in dispensing software from this month.  Pharmacists are asked to reassure patients that only the name of the ingredient has been changed, with no alteration to the medicine’s formulation, quality, safety or efficacy. 

The full list of affected ingredients is online at www.tga.gov.au.

Source:pharmacydaily.com.au, Wednesday 6 April 2016