This Popular Contraceptive Pill Has Been Recalled After A Placebo Mix-Up

Women of all ages rely on birth control in order to prevent unwanted pregnancy, with a large percentage protecting themselves via some form of oral contraceptive. As a pill-taker myself, to me, remembering to take your pill is no different to remembering to put deodorant on in the mornings - it's all part of your routine - so when Lupin Pharmaceuticals in Baltimore realised that a batch of Mibelas 24 Fe had to be recalled, it's fair to say that some users freaked the fuck out.

A month's supply of Mibelas 24 Fe has 28 pills, 24 containing active hormones for contraception and four placebo tablets to help keep patients in the habit of taking a tablet every day. When batch lot number 7600518's placebo tablets were being placed into their wallet, the packaging was accidentally rotated 180 degrees, consequently reversing the order that the tablets should be taken in. This meant that the first four days of what should've been active pills were in fact the non-hormonal placebos, putting the person taking the pills at risk.

Credit: Pixabay

By some miracle, Lupin have received no reported cases of adverse health effects as a result of the mix-up, and released a statement:

"As a result of this packaging error, oral contraceptive tablets that are taken out of sequence may place the user at risk for contraceptive failure and unintended pregnancy. The reversing the order may not be apparent to either new users or previous users of the product, increasing the likelihood of taking the tablets out of order."

It looks like a lucky escape for now, but if you're Stateside and take Mibelas 24 Fe and think you may have used pills from this batch, alert your doctor and return the medication to where you picked it up from. 

Batch details are as follows: Lot Number L600518, expiry May 31, 2018. Got questions about the recall? Contact Lupin Pharmaceuticals directly on 1-800-399-2561.