ADVAGRAF® prolonged-release tacrolimus and PROGRAF® tacrolimus - Potential risk of medication errors

Janssen would like to provide healthcare professionals with an important safety reminder concerning the risk of medication errors with oral tacrolimus products, which could lead to potential serious adverse drug reactions. ADVAGRAF® is a new prolonged-release formulation of tacrolimus. As part of the launch of ADVAGRAF®, Janssen wishes to remind healthcare professionals about the risk of potential medication errors associated with unsupervised switching between oral tacrolimus products, including ADVAGRAF® tacrolimus prolonged-release capsules and PROGRAF® tacrolimus immediate release capsules. PROGRAF® and ADVAGRAF® are not bioequivalent and therefore not interchangeable without careful therapeutic monitoring. Inadvertent, unintentional or unsupervised switching between the different tacrolimus oral formulations can lead to graft rejection or an increased incidence of undesirable effects. Janssen has undertaken measures to reduce the frequency of medication errors. Please refer to the Dear Healthcare Professional Letter for more details.
Healthcare professional, Therapeutic Products
Published:

Dear Healthcare Professional Letters

12 Dec 2019

Only abstracts of the Dear Healthcare Professional Letters (DHCPL) are provided on this website. Details of the letters can be found on the MOH Alert System, which is accessible via the Health Professionals Portal (HPP). HPP is a one-stop portal for all healthcare professionals in Singapore. Dentists, medical doctors and pharmacists may access HPP at https://www.moh.gov.sg/hpp/, and follow the procedures below to access the MOH Alert system.

Step 1: On the top navigation ribbon of webpage, select 'For Healthcare Professionals' followed by 'Health Professionals Portal' and click on the choice of profession. User will be redirected to the specific HPP webpage for the selected profession.

Step 2: Click on the Restricted Content icon on the left panel of webpage and login via SingPass.

Step 3: Click on the MOH Alert icon under ‘Applications’ section

Step 4: Click on the Drug Alert tab to view the DHCPLs.