The Food and Drug Administration has put out a warning about counterfeit versions of the drug Adderall. Some of the Adderall that is available for purchase through the internet contains the wrong inactive ingredients. Parents of kids who have ADHD or narcolepsy may want to take a closer look a the medication they are about to give their child.
The Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. It reviews foods and medications in order to ensure that they are safe for Americans to consume or use. When the FDA puts out a warning about a particular food or a certain type of drug, it is advisable to pay attention.
Adderall is a drug that is used to treat ADHD. According to the FDA, it is also used to treat narcolepsy. The drug falls into a specific class of drugs that have special controls placed upon it that must be followed by the pharmacists who dispense it. This drug is made by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries.
There has been a shortage of Adderall for quite some time now. This makes the drug much harder to obtain. Parents of kids who have ADHD suddenly found it to be incredibly difficult to get their child’s prescription filled. This has led many parents to go on the internet so that they could order the Adderall that their child needed from outside of the United States.
The FDA recently released a warning to consumers and health care professionals about a counterfeit version of Adderall that is being purchased on the internet. This involves the 30 milligram tablets. Laboratory tests have shown that the counterfeit versions contain the wrong active ingredients. The FDA notes that part of the reason why this particular drug has been counterfeited is because there is a shortage of it.
I would strongly recommend that parents read over the entire warning about fake Adderall on the FDA’s website. It gives excellent information about exactly what to look for in order to determine if the medication you purchased is the real thing or if it is a counterfeit version. Fake Adderall should be considered as unsafe, ineffective, and potentially harmful.
The FDA notes:
“Authentic Adderall 30 mg tablets produced by Teva are round, orange/peach, and scored with “dp” embossed on one side and “30” on the other side of the tablet. Teva’s Adderall 30 mg tablets are packaged only in a 100-count bottle with the National Drug Code (NDC) 0555-0768-02 listed”.
Beware if the bottle of Adderall says “NDS” instead of “NDC”. Other clues that you have purchased fake Adderall include misspellings on the package, such as “singel” instead of “single”. The pills should not be white in color or round in shape. They should have the correct markings on them.
Image by Pascal on Flickr