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The manufacturer of the prescription medication Pradaxa(r) is voluntarily recalling all patient-level lots of 75mg dosage of the medication.

The reason is a potential packaging defect that the manufacturer says may compromise the integrity of the bottle and permit moisture to enter and impair the effective dose.

If you have the 75 mg. dose of Pradaxa (r), you should contact your Medco/Express Scripts pharmacy for further instructions on return/replacement.

Medco customers who have been prescribed that medication by their physicians also will be receiving a letter from Medco/Express Scripts.

The following was received June 11, 2012, from Medco/Express Scripts:

On June 5 Sandoz announced it is conducting a voluntary recall of 10 lots of its generic oral contraceptive Introvale in the U.S., following a recent report of a packaging flaw.

Introvale is an extended-cycle oral contraceptive. Sandoz is not aware of any reports of related adverse events.

The recall was decided after a consumer reported the white placebo tablets were mistakenly in the ninth row (labeled “Week 9”) of the 13-row blister card, rather than in the correct position in the 13th and final row (labeled “Week 13”).

Each three-month blister card contains 84 peach-colored active tablets and seven white placebo tablets in 13 rows. Details on the recall are below: 

Product and strengths: Introvale (levonorgestrel and ethinyl estradiol tablets, USP) 0.15 mg/0.03 mg

Indication: prevent pregnancy

Manufacturer: Sandoz

Date of recall: June 5, 2012

Type of recall: voluntary, patient-level

Reason for recall: packaging error

NDCs of recalled products: NDC 00781 5584 36

Affected lot numbers: The lot numbers involved in the recall are: LF00478C, LF00479C, LF00551C, LF00552C, LF00687C, LF00688C, LF00763C, LF00764C, LF00765C and LF01261C. These lots were distributed only in the U.S. between January 2011 and May 2012

Express Scripts patients impacted: approximately 240

Return/Replacement information: not yet available from Sandoz

Implications to Express Scripts and clients

 Express Scripts is taking the following action in response to this recall:

 · Calling impacted patients informing them about the recall and advising how to detect if they have impacted product. If the patient has affected product, Express Scripts will advise them to begin using a non hormonal form of contraception.

 · Advising patients to contact their doctor to discuss other concerns they may have and to obtain a new prescription for an alternative hormonal therapy because due to this recall, Introvale is currently not available.

 · Advising patients they may contact the Sandoz Drug Information Direct Line at 800-525-2492, 24 hours/day, seven days a week, or via email at qa.druginfo@sandoz.com. Specifics about return and reimbursement have not been released from the manufacturer.

 Developing/distributing a frequently asked questions document for pharmacists and customer service representatives.

Posting web messaging on www.medco.com.

Retail impact:

Retail patients will be managed by retail pharmacies according to their professional practices.

Wisconsin Rally; Wisconsin; Rally; protestRepublican Gov. Scott Walker, the architect of anti-union legislation in his state, faces a recall election in June. He becomes the first governor in Wisconsin history to face recall.

The UTU, through its Collective Bargaining Defense Fund, worked with other labor  organizations, including the Sheet Metal Workers International Association, to obtain almost one million signatures forcing the recall election — almost twice as many as required.

The New York Times reports that, in the nation’s history, only two governors have been removed from office through recall votes: California Gov. Gray Davis in 2003 and North Dakota Gov. Lynn Frazier in 1921.

A former White House counsel to President George H.W. Bush, C. Boyden Gray, was quoted that the Walker recall election “has national implications” as working families react to a string of attempts by conservatives in many states to restrict collective bargaining rights and limit the ability of labor unions to represent workers.

Also facing recall in June are Wisconsin Republican Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and three Republican state senators, all of whom supported the anti-union legislation; while a fourth resigned from office prior to facing a recall election. That vacant seat will be filled also in the June election.

In August 2011, two state senators who had supported Gov. Walker’s assault on collective bargaining rights were successfully recalled and replaced by more moderate lawmakers.

In 2011, the UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund was instrumental in overturning, at the ballot box, an Ohio law restricting collective bargaining rights.

Meanwhile, a federal court in March invalidated portions of the Wisconsin law – one provision requiring annual recertification of a union, and another denying workers the right to have union dues withheld from their paychecks. Both were found in violation of constitutional free speech rights.

Wisconsin Rally; Wisconsin; Rally; protest“On Wisconsin” is the fight song of the University of Wisconsin.

“Back to Wisconsin” is the fight song of the UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund and other organizations determined to continue a successful “red zone” defense against anti-union political zealots.

Organized labor – with considerable assistance from the UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund – helped engineer the recall of two Wisconsin state senators who plotted to eliminate collective bargaining rights for state workers in that state, and then defeated, at the ballot box, an Ohio legislative attempt to do the same.

Elected lawmakers nationwide, as well as political analysts, fully digested that those successes by organized labor and its friends and now recognize organized labor is not to be abused or ignored. 

Now the focus turns to a recall of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, the architect of the Wisconsin assault on collective bargaining rights and organized labor. A successful recall could stop dead in its tracks further efforts by anti-labor zealots — nationwide and in Congress — to attack the fundamental rights of working Americans to organize and bargain collectively.

Indeed, in union there is strength, and now that strength is being focused on obtaining 540,000 signatures of Wisconsin voters to force a recall of Gov. Walker – the anti-union politician who started this unnecessary fight.

As the Associated Press reported, the drive to collect the 540,000 signatures is “fueled by anger over Walker’s successful push to take away nearly all public worker collective bargaining rights.”

It is fueled also by recognition among working families — union and non-union — that this was only the opening salvo in an effort to destroy labor unions and return America to the days when workers were entirely beholden to the daily whims of management.

In Wisconsin, the UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund is helping to organize rallies, buy television and radio air time to explain the recall effort, engage in door-to-door canvassing of voters, operate phone banks, send letters to the editor, meet with media editorial boards, and establish “sign the petition” booths throughout the state.

Less than two weeks into the recall campaign, volunteers have collected more than 300,000 signatures. With 540,000 signatures, a recall election could be held as early as April 2012.

In an incredible statement, Gov. Walker told a Wisconsin radio station, in response to the rallies, “You see a total disregard for people’s families and others here.” One would have thought he was responding to his own anti-labor efforts.

For more information on the UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund, click on the following link:

https://www.smart-union.org/collective-bargaining-defense-fund/

 

A coalition of labor unions and community groups didn’t take back the Wisconsin state senate from anti-union extremists Tuesday night, Aug. 9, but voters enraged over the extremists’ political agenda did unseat two of the six senators targeted for recall.

“Seeing that we were outspent three-to-one, that recall elections are rare in American politics and that our effort to change the face of the Wisconsin legislature only began a few months ago, contributors to the UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund can be proud of the accomplishment of unseating two extremists, and, especially, the message the recall election sent anti-union politicians nationwide,” said UTU Alternate National Legislative Director John Risch.

The Wisconsin recall effort began after political extremists in that state legislature voted to curtail public-employee bargaining rights as a first step toward weakening labor-union power.

An anti-union agenda by political extremists in Ohio similarly energized labor and community groups there, culminating in a successful petition drive that puts the political extremists’ anti-union legislation to a direct voter referendum in Ohio in November.

And in Indiana, political extremists abandoned their effort to curtail public-employee collective bargaining rights after the pushback by labor and community groups began in Wisconsin and Ohio.

In all cases, the UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund played an effective role.

In Madison, Wis., Tuesday, a voter told the Capitol-Times newspaper, “I think the fact that this election is going on right now is a victory in and of itself. We put [the anti-union lawmakers] on the hot seat. I would have liked to have seen us run the table on them, but this is okay for now.”

The UTU’s political consultant, Dean Mitchell, noted that the Wisconsin recall elections are a “test run for organized labor in expanding and improving its get-out-the-vote message and efforts ahead of the 2012 presidential election, where Wisconsin will be one of the swing states. The UTU can be proud that the two senators successfully recalled are from the two voting districts in the state with the most UTU members registered.”

UTU National Legislative Director James Stem said the extremist agenda in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and other states to privatize schools and weaken labor unions mirrors the efforts of extremists in Congress to fold Railroad Retirement into Social Security, privatize Social Security and Medicare, eliminate Amtrak and destroy organized labor.

 “The situation in Wisconsin allowed the UTU and other labor organizations to fine-tune our communication strategies,” Stem said. “We are very proud of the manner in which our active and retired members responded to our efforts. The UTU Collective Bargaining Defense Fund and the UTU PAC will continue to spearhead our efforts going forward to protect our collective bargaining rights and defend against these brazen attacks on the middle-class.

“We owe temporary Gov. Scott Walker a debt of gratitude for waking up the middle class to the battle being waged against them,” Stem said. “We will use the lessons learned in the Wisconsin recall to improve our efforts and communications in Ohio and in presidential and congressional elections in 2012.”