Travelers must be cautious when refilling prescriptions since the same brand name may be used for a very different drug in another country, a report said.
While the Food and Drug Administration oversees drug names in the United States, there is no body that oversees and regulates drug brands worldwide.
The non-profit group Institute for Safe Medication Practices this year issued a safety alert about the proliferation of duplicate brands to hospitals and doctors, given the case of a Michigan traveler.
The man, Selman Cacaj, refilled his prescription for Dilacor in Serbia. Instead of getting medication for high blood pressure, the man got pills to treat heart failure, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The problem of duplicate brand names is likely to grow as new drugs are in constant development. Experts said there could be hundreds of thousands of drugs worldwide, of which about 10,800 are U.S. FDA-approved branded and generic medications.
Travelers were urged to carefully check drugs when refilling a prescription outside their home country.
© Copyright 2005 by United Press International
