I’m packing supplies for a month long trip abroad and come across an annoying problem. Last year I bought a bunch of medicines to be prepared for going to university. At the time they were all labelled (but not in their original packages) however since then, many of the labels have worn off.
Now I’m stuck with a number of random pills which I don’t recognize. I tried www.rxlist.com but that doesn’t seem to be the same for my canadian pills. Whats my next best bet? Pharmacist? Any other online resources?
I can’t help you with your question but I thought I’d let you know that it is not a good idea travel abroad with unlabelled drugs not in their original packaging. Your best bet is to buy new replacements.
It’s doubtful that you’ll be able to tell which is which just by looking at the pill -from my pharaceutical company job, I can think of two offhand that look EXACTLY alike, except one is a potential AIDS drug and the other is flea control for dogs. The only way to tell them apart would be to do some sort of assay on them (e.g. examine their contents by HPLC or something). I would toss out the ones you have, and buy new pills and keep them in their original containers. Besides, depending on how long ago they were bought, some might have degraded or otherwise pass their expiry date - especially since they were not in their proper containers. Blister packs vs HDPE vs LDPE bottles are chosen for reasons sometimes - to keep out moisture, or light, or both.