Children’s Medication Mixed-Up With Cancer Drugs At CVS Pharmacy In N.J.

CVS Pharmacy in Chatham, New Jersey. (credit: CBS 2)

CHATHAM, N.J. (CBSNewYork) A New Jersey pharmacy is under fire for mixing childrens medication with cancer drugs. The medication mix-up is raising concerns about how people can protect themselves when placing a prescription.

Sandy Jones said she couldnt believe there was a major medication mix-up at her longtime CVS pharmacy in Chatham.

Im surprised because Ive been coming here for many years, Ive never had an issue. But thats really serious, Jones told CBS 2s Hazel Sanchez on Thursday night.

CVS pharmacy said its Chatham location may have given as many as 50 families the breast cancer fighting drug Tamoxifen, instead offluoride tablets, for children over the last 60 days.

Im gonna think twice about doing my medications here. Ill tell you that, said customer Mike Riccone.

Its pretty awful. To give kids that? Its scary actually. Its really scary, customer Christen Simmons said.

CVS apologized for the mistake in a written statement and said: most of the families we have spoken to did not indicate that their children received any incorrect pills. We will continue to follow up with families who believe that their children may have ingested incorrect medication.

Pharmacist Derek Lorenzo of Tiffany Natural Pharmacy in Westfield showed CBS 2 how a fluoride pill looks almost exactly like Tamoxifen.

Unless it happened for an extended period of time, the child should be fine, Lorenzo said. To have that many mix-ups for that many months it sounds like something happened on the manufacturing line.

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Children’s Medication Mixed-Up With Cancer Drugs At CVS Pharmacy In N.J.