{"id":122344,"date":"2025-05-22T11:00:07","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T11:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/122344\/"},"modified":"2025-05-22T11:00:07","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T11:00:07","slug":"drug-recalled-over-contamination-patients-urged-to-check-pill-colour-now-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/122344\/","title":{"rendered":"Drug recalled over &#8216;contamination&#8217; \u2014 patients urged to check pill colour now | UK | News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A batch of <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" title=\"Cancer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/cancer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cancer<\/a> medication has been recalled over microbial contamination after medics noticed the tablets were discoloured. Mercaptopurine is a type of chemotherapy drug used to treat some types of leukaemia. The tablets should be pale yellow.<\/p>\n<p>A notice issued by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said: \u201cAspen Pharma Trading Limited is recalling a specific batch of Mercaptopurine 50mg tablets as a precautionary measure due to microbial contamination following a small number of complaints of discoloured tablets within the packs, identified when the packs have been opened by healthcare professionals.The contamination has been identified as Penicillium Kongii.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The affected batch of 50mg tablets has the code P0010384. It was first distributed in January and has an expiry date of December 31, 2028.<\/p>\n<p>Patients and carers were urged to check the batch number on the label of the medicine bottle.<\/p>\n<p>The MHRA notice added: \u201cThe tablets should be a \u2018pale yellow colour and are marked with \u2018PT \/ 50\u2019, as per the Patient Information Leaflet (PIL).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you have tablets that are discoloured in any way, from the affected batch please contact your relevant healthcare professional responsible for your treatment, e.g. specialist or prescriber.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPatients should not stop taking their medication without discussing this with their specialist or prescriber as there may be a need for additional monitoring.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mercaptopurine works by stopping cancer cells making and repairing DNA.<\/p>\n<p>It can be taken with food or on an empty stomach, but should not be taken with liquid milk or dairy products such as yoghurt and cheese.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A batch of cancer medication has been recalled over microbial contamination after medics noticed the tablets were discoloured.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122345,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4316],"tags":[1204,54441,54442,54443,105,4348,54444,54446,54445,54447,3236,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-122344","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-cancer","9":"tag-cancer-drugs","10":"tag-cancer-medication","11":"tag-drug-recall","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-healthcare","14":"tag-mercaptopurine-recall","15":"tag-mhra-notice","16":"tag-microbial-contamination","17":"tag-penicillium-kongii","18":"tag-product-recalls","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114551142653682922","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}