If you have a box at home, you must return it to the pharmacy.
Perhaps you are using them if you are in the process of quitting smoking… After being informed by a hospital center of a packaging error exposing an allergic risk, the Medicines Agency announced on July 25 the recall of several boxes of Nicopass (marketed by the Pierre Fabre laboratory), a lozenge sold without a prescription used in smoking cessation for adolescents over 15 years old and adults.
In detail, the Nicopass Mint Freshness 2.5 mg sugar-free lozenges were mistakenly packaged in boxes intended for Nicopass Eucalyptus 1.5 mg sugar-free, 96 lozenges, from batch no. 4N4RH distributed between June 11, 2024 and July 8, 2024. However, unlike the eucalyptus version, Nicopass Mint Freshness 2.5 mg contains excipients such as soybean oil, which is a known allergen. However, “the risk of an allergic reaction occurring is low given the very limited number of boxes concerned [tout comme] the risk of nicotine overdose“, wishes to reassure the ANSM in his press releaseTo date, no pharmacovigilance cases related to this packaging error have been reported to the laboratory.
As a precaution, patients who have a box of Nicopass at home with the batch number 4N4RH should return it to their pharmacy so that it can be replaced with a box from a compliant batch. For your information, the batch number is on the box of your medication. If a reference other than 4N4RH is written on your box, you are not affected by the recall and you can use it normally.
According to the manufacturer’s website, this lozenge doubles your chances of quitting smoking against willpower alone at 6 months. In any case, when you quit smoking, the support, advice, and monitoring that your doctor or pharmacist can provide will be invaluable during the first 6 months. You can also seek specialized advice to help you quit smoking, especially if you have already failed.