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Prescription drug found in Walmart's over the counter ibuprofen

A prescription drug was found in Walmart's over the counter ibuprofen

CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WVEC) -- A woman found a prescription drug in her over the counter ibuprofen bottle.

Toni Stugard purchased a bottle of the Equate brand ibuprofen from a local Walmart.

“Over the weekend he [her husband] went to take a couple for a headache and saw something white in the bottle. I said, 'oh, it’s something white in there.' I thought it was one of those plastic things that keep the pills fresh, and he takes it out and it was a prescription drug,” said Stugard.

Stugard found a round white pill with the markings IP 33 on one side and a 3 on the other side. After doing a google search she discovered the pill was prescription drug mixed in with the over the counter ibuprofen.

“I said, 'oh my God, I wonder if there was more.' I emptied the whole bottle to see if there was any more, and there was not it was just one. My immediate thought was if the wrong person got a hold of this,” said Stugard.

Stugard contacted the number for Walmart on the bottle but didn’t reach anyone on a Saturday.

“Immediately I went online and contacted the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and called them and they gave me another number to file a complaint,” said Stugard.

13News Now reached out to Dr. David Creecy of Poquoson Pharmacy who confirmed the pill was, in fact, a prescription drug.

“This is a Schedule 3, and the markings indicate it to be Acetaminophen with Codeine 30mg. It is a narcotic pain reliever. Usually, it would be used for acute [immediate] pain such as pulling a tooth, sprain, broken bone. We would classify it for moderate to severe pain,” said Creecy.

Here’s what Dr. Creecy recommends someone do if they come across this:

  1. Do not consume anything from the bottle in question.
  2. Report it to the authorities. The FDA and manufacturer need to be notified immediately. The FDA has a website devoted to reporting these issues.
  3. Professionals and the public have forms they can fill out to address the issue. The form asks for the name of the drug labeled (where the wrong medication was found), manufacturer, lot number, expiration date, the UPC code (the code scanned at the cash register), NDC (national drug code-if there is one) and description of what was found.

13News Now also reached out to Walmart which sells the Equate brand Ibuprofen. The company issued the following statement:

“We appreciate this being brought to our attention as the safety of our customers is top priority. We will contact our supplier immediately to complete a thorough review."

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