BASEL, Switzerland — Novartis announced Sunday that it is recalling some bottles of Excedrin, NoDoz, Bufferin and Gas-X over concerns that the bottles could contain stray pills from other medicines, or chipped or broken tablets.
The news follows Novartis’ recent decision to temporarily suspend production at its Lincoln, Neb., plant for “maintenance and other improvement activities.”
The Swiss drugmaker said it implemented the recall, which affects U.S. retailers, voluntarily and is working with the Food and Drug Administration during the process. It became aware of the potential problem during an internal review that identified broken and chipped pills and inconsistent bottle packaging that could cause pills to be mixed up.
The company said it wanted to make sure that customers didn’t take any pills that they might be allergic to or that might become dangerous when mixed with their other medications, though it also said there have been no such reports from consumers.
Novartis said some of the bottles of headache medicine Excedrin and caffeine cap lets NoDoz with expiration dates of Dec. 20, 2014, or earlier will be subject to the recall. Some of the packages of pain medicine Bufferin and stomach medicine Gas-X with expiration dates of Dec. 20, 2013, or earlier also will be affected.
The company said it will post more information today at .
Customers also can call the company at 888-477-2403 Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. MST.
