VANCOUVER, April 9, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Vancouver-based drug store chain is offering customers free morning after pills following a product recall by Health Canada of the Alysena 28 contraceptive pill.
The Health Canada recall notice states that some packages of the contraceptive, produced by Apotex Inc. of Toronto, may have twice the amount of placebo sugar pills than they should have.
Health Canada says the reason for the recall is that the “packaged product may contain two rows of placebo tablets (14 tablets) and two rows of active contraceptive tablets (14 tablets) in the blister pack. Correct packaging is one row of placebo tablets (7 tablets) and three rows of active contraceptive tablets (21 tablets) in the blister pack.”
“As per the product monograph,” Health Canada warns, “in the case of a missed dose, use a non-hormonal method of contraception as an interim measure until you speak with your physician and obtain medical advice.”
Apotex informed wholesalers and retailers of the packaging error last week, saying the error “can reduce the effectiveness of the pills and raises the possibility of unplanned pregnancy.”
Alysena 28 is sold in British Columbia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, P.E.I. and Quebec.
London Drugs, a pharmacy chain based in Vancouver, has decided to not only inform its customers of the recall, but to offer them free pregnancy tests and the morning after pill as well.
“I looked at it and said, 'there could be unwanted pregnancies out there,” said Vice-President John Tse, according to a CBC report. “We felt it was important to let the patient know so there can be a judgement call from the patient.”
Tse told local radio station NEWS1130 that although their records show only about 350 women have bought the contraceptive drug from the chain of drug stores, they have set up a call center “to answer specific questions.”
“Given the extreme sensitive nature of the product, we customized a letter and reached out to physicians to find out why they prescribed it. There may be very young women on this medication (to control things like acne) so we didn’t want to call inappropriately either,” said Tse.
Alysena 28 contains 100 mcg of levonorgestrel and 20 mcg of ethinyl estradiol, both of which are synthetic steroid hormones.
While calling the placebo error in the packaging of Alysena 28 a “product safety issue,” Health Canada has previously warned that “the estimated risk of developing a blood clot among women taking a levonorgestrel-containing birth control pill is 1 in 10,000 women per year,” and that the much higher dosage of synthetic steroid hormones in the morning after pill has a correspondingly greater risk of adverse side effects.
When Health Canada allowed over-the-counter availability of the morning after pill without a doctor’s prescription in 2004, the president of Canadian Physicians for Life at the time, Dr. Will Johnston, expressed concern that such a move could endanger the health of Canadian women and girls and raised serious issues regarding informed consent.
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Manufacturers have reduced the hormone content of oral contraceptives due to the serious side effects and health risks. However, while oral contraceptives such as Alysena 28 contain 100 micrograms (1 microgram = 1 millionth of a gram) of levonorgestrel per dose, the morning after pill contains 1.5 mg (1 mg = 1 thousandth of a gram) in a single dose (or as two .75 mg doses taken 12 hours apart) of levonorgestrel.
“The potential long-term impact of these high hormone doses, especially when used repeatedly, is worrisome and not being adequately addressed,” Dr. Johnston said.
The warning has been substantiated by numerous reports of serious adverse effects and deaths linked to the use of these drugs.
Last month the French National Agency for the Safety of Drugs and Health Products (ANSM) released a study that found an average of 2,529 annual cases of venous thromboembolism (blood clots), and that the deaths of 20 French women per year were linked to contraceptive pill use.
Last week LSN reported on the case of 32-year-old Marie-Claude Lemieux of Quebec who, after taking the contraceptive pill Tri-Cyclen for six months, suffered a blot clot induced stroke that left her completely paralyzed, save for the ability to move her left eyelid.
Lemieux, after regaining some use of her finger, which allows her to communicate on an electronic device using a special program, told La Presse that before going on Tri-Cyclen, neither her doctor or pharmacist told her the risk factors involved in taking the contraceptive pill.
“Nobody mentioned the risk and I believed that since it was approved [for women’s use], it was not dangerous.”
Janssen states on its website that Tri-Cyclen’s side-effect risks include blood clots in legs, lungs, heart, eyes or brain, breast cancer, cervical cancer, gallbladder disease, and liver tumours.
Apotex lists the same adverse effect risks for the use of Alysena on its website, advising women that “pregnancy is always more risky than taking birth control pills.”
Pro-life activists have also pointed out that the morning after pill may act as an abortifacient in some circumstances, preventing a newly conceived embryo from implanting in the womb.