FDA Issues Safety Communication on Name Confusions for Brilinta and Brintellix

August 3, 2015—The US Food and Drug Administration issued a safety communication to health care professionals (specifically cardiologists, psychiatrists, and pharmacists) and patients that reports of confusion between the antiplatelet medication Brilinta (ticagrelor, AstraZeneca) and the antidepressant Brintellix (vortioxetene, Takeda Pharmaceuticals America, Inc.) resulting in the wrong medication being prescribed or dispensed. FDA determined that the main reason for the confusion between these two medications is the similarity of their proprietary brand names. None of the reports indicates that a patient ingested the wrong medication; however, reports of prescribing and dispensing errors continue.

Brilinta is an antiblood-clotting medication used to lower the risk of repeat myocardial infarction (MI), or dying from a heart problem after an MI or severe chest pain. Brintellix is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors used to treat major depressive disorder in adults.

The FDA recommends that health care professionals can reduce the risk of name confusion by including the generic name of the medication, in addition to the brand name, and the indication for use when prescribing these medications. Additionally, patients should check their prescriptions to ensure that the correct medication was dispensed.

The complete safety communication with detailed recommendations is available online. The FDA advised that as of June 2015, the FDA has received 50 reports of medication error cases describing brand name confusion with Brintellix and Brilinta. Most of the cases reported concerns that similarities in the sound, look, or both sound and look of the two brand names could cause confusion for prescribers and pharmacists.

Health care professionals and patients are encouraged to report adverse events or side effects related to the use of these products to the FDA's MedWatch Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program at www.fda.gov/MedWatch/report.