FDA Says Agency has Received 50 Reports of Mix-ups Between Antidepressant and Blood-Thinning Drug

Some doctors and pharmacists are getting the drugs Brintellix and Brilinta confused, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Thursday.

There have been 50 reports of medication errors, including at least 12 cases in which doctors prescribed the wrong drug or pharmacies dispensed the wrong one. The FDA said it has been receiving error reports since Brintellix, an antidepressant drug, was approved by the agency in September 2013. Brilinta is a blood-thinning medication used to prevent death after a heart attack or severe chest pain or to prevent a second heart attack. Both medications come in tablet form and have the letter T stamped on them. In some cases, both drugs are yellow, according to CBS News.

Health officials are encouraging doctors to write out the generic name of the drug (Brintellix’s generic name is vortioxetine and Brilinta’s is ticagrelor) and the ailment it is being prescribed to treat. Brintellix is sold in the U.S. by Japanese drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceuticals; Brilinta is manufactured by AstraZeneca PLC, according to CBS News.

While Brintellix and Brilinta both come in tablet form, they do contain several differences. Brintellix is a tear-shaped tablet with the letters “TL” stamped on it. A number is stamped on each tablet indicating the dosage (for example, “5” for the 5 mg tablet). The color may be different depending on the dose and may be pink, yellow, orange or red. Brilinta is a round, yellow tablet stamped with “T 90” on it, CBS News reports.

The FDA posted these tips to help patients avoid any confusion between Brintellix and Brilinta:

– Check your prescription to ensure that the correct medication was dispensed.
– Look at the name on the bottle.
– Inspect the appearance of the tablet.
– Know why you are taking it.
– Ask questions to your health care professional if the name on the prescription, description of the medicine’s use, or appearance of the medication is different from what you expect.

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