Irregularly-shaped Cepacol throat lozenges - should I be concerned?

Factual Questions
1

I have a slight sore throat so I bought a pack of Cepacol throat lozenges, as I usually do in this situation. However, I noticed when I opened the package that the lozenges were not perfectly-rounded as they always were in the past. Instead, they are all oval-shaped, even though the little plastic blister bubbles that they’re in are perfectly rounded. They all have the same oval shape, looking standardized, but they’re not rounded like they’re supposed to be.

The packs are all sealed normally and show no evidence of tampering. But I’m still wondering why the lozenges are oval and not round. Also, they’re a darker shade of yellow than the last pack of the same-flavored Cepacols that I bought. The last ones were light yellow, these are very dark yellow.

What the fuck? Did they change the design or something? Why would they be in perfectly-rounded enclosures if they’re oval?

I’ve mentioned before that I have OCD. So that’s definitely an element in my worrying about this. I took one lozenge about an hour and a half ago, and was about to take another but did not after noticing the different shape.

2

well i dont think they have changed the shape of them. but it might depend on where you bought them from. like i know there have been problems with people buying hair gel with brand name labels on it and when they used it it was very low quality and it turns out it was kinda a legal rip off. but it might also be that that particular batch might be messed up somehow by the manufactorers. if the seals were in tact then you shouldnt have any reason to not take them. my advice is take them and if something hapens, sue sue sue

3

My WAG, those are probably made with corn starch molds. What they do is take a sheet of compacted corn starch, press the shape into it, then pour liquid into the depressions. my guess is that someone wasn’t paying attention and pressed the wrong shape into the corn starch. If your concerned take them back, otherwise if they taste normal, I woundn’t be worried. You could probably email the company and ask them.

4

How would that explain the change in the color though?

I really hope there was nothing dangerous in them or that they were not tampered with. Like I said I have OCD and extreme paranoia. I already dissolved the first one in my mouth hours ago so throwing up would make no difference. I think if there were poison it would have affected me by now.

5

Well, it’s been almost 10 hours since I took that so guess I’m alright, unless it’s contaminated with some kind of slow-acting thing. But in any case, I won’t be taking any more, and I will return them tomorrow in addition to writing a letter to the Cepacol company about their quality control.

6

Part of a rigourous quality control program is to verify colour, shape, size and weight of tablets/capsules etc. Either a) the company’s quality control is abysmal (because I refuse to believe that you caught an entire box of non-conforming lozenges while the QC lab got none!), or b) this is an intentional change in the appearance of the product.

In the case of a), you should be worried, not so much about tampering/poison, but simply over the fact that you have no guarantee that the product you’ve consumed is the product you bought. If you have no ill effects now, that’s good, and it’s very improbable that you will suffer any in the long term. It might be a lot of a new version of the same drug, mistakenly packaged into the old boxes, or it might be a lot of medicine of another type, with a similar appearance, again mispackaged. This shouldn’t be the case if the QC guys are paying any attention, but unfortunately, it’s been known to happen.

Imagine: the drug is made, then tested for impurities, correct dosage level, appearance, and any other criteria demanded by the FDA. It must conform (by law) to very rigid standards to pass Quality Control. In the meantime, the lot is stored in a warehouse. Once given the OK by QC, the stored bulk drugs are brought to packaging, they are placed in the blister packs/bottles/whatever package and outer boxes, and sent to the warehouse again, while a few boxes go back to the lab. Usually, the lab will verify “identity”, that is, they will check that if the box should be acetominophen, the pills in it DO have acetominophen in them. What many (otherwise good) labs fail to check, though, is the dosage at this point, the assumption being that the lot number has been tracked along with the pills, and if it passed earlier, after manufacturing, it will pass now. That is true (a correctly manufactured batch doesn’t suddenly become more or less potent), but it fails to take into the account that the 100mg and 1000mg doses might look the same/similar and they will both test positive in the identity test!. Packaging the lower dose in a high dose box is a mistake, but not necessarily a big deal. The opposite however… potentially fatal.

In your situation, I’d check to see if there is a picture of the intended lozenge on the box or on a website - they might still be using round blister packs to get rid of what they have left over in the warehouse, but the drug is now intended to be oval. If not, then I would stop taking the medicine and contact my pharmacist (even if this is OTC, they should know what it is and should look like) and the company until it is straightened out. Again, if it’s not an intentional change, a good QC lab will want to take your box and test the contents, to see if they can track down where/how the mix-up or problem occurred.

(btw, I am a former Quality Control chemist for a pharmaceutical company; I haven’t done any work for Cepacol, though!)

7

Sorry, missed the bit about the color. I’d probably take them back to the store and re-buy them at another store (to avoid getting a box from the same lot*). It’s probably nothing to worry about, but still, that’s kinda weird.

*Check the lot number on the box, and make sure to grab a box with a different lot number.

PS, I’d probably email the company about it before I return it to the store. They might want it back, while the store will probabaly just throw it out.

8

Alright , I went to their website. The link to their lozenges page is fucking broken. Unprofessional assholes. I emailed them, but I am not expecting a reply - if their web page is that poorly-maintained, I doubt they give a shit about the concerns of a mere mortal like me.

I feel fine as of now, but if I suffer any ill effects AND it turns out that these lozenges that I got were not supposed to be that way and caused said effects, then they will be hearing from my attorney.

9

Aren’t you overreacting a little?

10

The OP says in post #4 that he has OCD and suffers from paranoia.

11

Ah. Okay.

12

Is there an 800 number on the package?

13

Update: I received a letter in the mail from the company that makes Cepacol. They apologized for the irregularly shaped lozenges, and enclosed a postage-paid envelope for me to send them the malformed lozenges back (I accidentally ripped this envelope in half while opening the main envelope.) It doesn’t matter anyway, because I consumed all of the lozenges after a day had gone by with no ill effects.

They also gave me a coupon to get a new box of lozenges for free. Sweet! And also numbing!