Dementia Drug Presentations Discontinued

Forest Laboratories has decided to discontinue the following presentations of memantine hydrochloride (Namenda) unit dose XR capsules:

• Namenda XR 14 mg 10 x 10 unit dose (NDC 0456-3414-63); 
• Namenda XR 28 mg 10 x 10 unit dose (NDC 0456-3428-63).  

No reason was listed on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s report.

Namenda has had its share of the spotlight over the past couple of years.

Beginning in August 2014, there was a shortage of a number of presentations of memantine hydrochloride XR. Earlier this month, the shortage was resolved.

The company planned to discontinue manufacturing memantine hydrochloride shortly before its patent ran out which would have forced patients to switch to the newer iteration of the drug memantine hydrochloride XR, a move that was blocked by the federal court in 2014.

In July, Dr Reddy’s and Mylan announced that they were launching the generic version of Namenda HCI.

--Stephanie Vaccaro

Reference:

1. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. FDA drug shortages. www.fda.gov. Accessed February 23, 2016.