Brand name confusion "a risk for patients"

The potential dangers of doctor's referring to the brand name alone whenprescribing drugs have been highlighted once again, when a 56-year-old German woman whom it was originally thought required a pacemaker, was in fact found to be suffering from an overdose of a blood pressure-lowering drug, reports Reuters.

The accidental overdose occurred following the woman's primary health care doctor being "apparently unaware" that a drug recently prescribed to the her contained the same active ingredient as one she was already taking, according to Matthias Schwab, of the Margarete Fischer-Bosch Institute of Pharmacology in Germany, who led a recent study into such instances of overdose.

The two drugs at the center of the confusion were Verasal and Veramex, both of which contain the calcium antagonist verapamil as their active ingredient. With reference to the mix-up Dr Schwab added that, during 2001, 15 different brands of verapamil were available across Germany and six in the USA.