Hi Kathy-I did receive a phone call about expired Natrecor. The caller was quite vague and acted somewhat confused about what she was doing. Very strange, indeed.

Name of Facility: Aspirus Wausau Hospital

City, State: community hospital

Years as a Buyer: 30+

I contacted the company that manufactures the Natrecor
and they told me no I should not return it to this company. I didn't feel comfortable right from the beginning because they were only asking for vials that expired in November, why not any that outdated. I have heard of products being shipped overseas that are outdated and wanted to make sure we did not end up having part in that. The company told me to continue to return outdated through the service we use.

Years as a Buyer: 16+ tech 33

I had a similar call as well, stating he was calling from Stericycle. We now use EXP for our outdates and that's what I told this guy. He didn't know how to respond to that. I wasn't about to dig through several boxes of outdates to find Natrecor. I'll let EXP handle it ehen I schedule them to come again.

Name of Facility: PORTER

Years as a Buyer: 9+

I also got this call. When I asked him who had hired him to call us he was very unhelpful in his answer. He asked if he could come by and have me sign a paper stating that I did not have any expired Natrecor. I have not seen or heard from him since.

Name of Facility: Liberty Hospital

Years as a Buyer: 1

I contacted our System Office and our GPO to have them track this down. I will post what I learn.

Thanks for the responses.

Name of Facility: St. Francis health Center

City, State: Acute

Years as a Buyer: 4+ in Pharmacy 25 in retail hard goods

I also got the same call. The guy was originally asking for expired 'Nutricort', so I was suspicious. When I finally figured out he was looking for Natrecor, I told him we didn't have any, and if we did I would not give it to him, but would use our regular returns company. He then demanded that he come by to get a signature, but It's been over a week and I have not seen anyone yet. Very strange indeed....

Name of Facility: Heartland Regional Medical Center

City, State: Acute-Care Hospital/Clinics

Years as a Buyer: 21

I also got that call - the guy was very strange. I just told him we had no OOD product since the techs had just done their quarterly purge of the shelf. He just said "OK" and that was it.

If anyone finds out what the deal with it is, I'd be curious to know... the guy who called me sounded really sketchy.

City, State: Teaching hospital

Years as a Buyer: 2

I've called JOM 1(800)325-7504 on this matter and mentioned RQA. The lady was aware of this organization. They are affiliate with the company Stericycle which Scios is contracted with. The RQA agents were asked to retrieve of any expired drugs. She also stated that a letter was sent to facilities to inform of this activies. I did not receive this letter that I'm aware of and I am sure most of you may not have either. I did request that she faxed it to me, so if any of you need to see it please call me 661-869-6288 or e-mail mookieem@ah.org with your fax#. If you are using a Returns company (EXP)for your outdates you need not to worry with RQA folks. It is your preference who you choose. I hope this help you all....

Name of Facility: San Joaquin Community Hospital

City, State: Hospital

I didn't get that letter either... and I sure wasn't going to hand product to some random person who came by. Why would they think anyone would do that?

City, State: Teaching hospital

Years as a Buyer: 2

I got the letter about a week ago...it explains the whole procedure and really makes an attempt to make it easy to return exp Natrecor. It does say we will be contacted by RQA reps to help us return the product. Unfortunatly it looks like they we very lax in getting the letter to the Pharmacies before the phone calls started!

Name of Facility: St Charles Mercy Hospital

City, State: Hospital

Years as a Buyer: 7

This is it - the Whole Story
After reading conflicting stories about the Natrecor, I decided to do some digging.
I checked up on RQA, Inc. They are a middleman for products - they develop, market and dispose of products for various companies. One of their partners is SteriCycle, the reverse distribution company used by Scios. So I called Scios' medical department. At first, the pharmacist was unware of RQA's involvement with the Natrecor recall. So I explained the relationship between Scios, the manufacturer of Natrecor, Stericycle, the company Scios uses for returns, and RQA, the company SteriCycle contracted to handle this Natrecor recall.
Got all that? There'll be a quiz next period
The pharamcist apologized for the company for not making the whole process more clear.
Anyone who needs to get the paperwork for the Natrecor return can call 800-631-5243. Hopefully, this should clear up any further confusion.

Name of Facility: Summerdale Enterprises, Inc.

City, State: Publishing

Years as a Buyer: 30+