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Look Alike Sound Alike Medicines

Announcement: Public Consultation: Revision of National LASA List - Your Input Needed!

Date: February 21st, 2024

Background:

In 2023, the initiative to create a National LASA (Look-Alike Sound-Alike) list was set into motion. The primary goal of this project was to identify LASA pairs among authorized medications in the Lebanese market, focusing on those with similar names or sound. Specifically, the compiled list featured drugs that exhibited either visual resemblance in terms of how the name of the drug is written (look alike) or phonetic similarity (sound alike). The final comprehensive national LASA list, combining both categories, is attached below. The full details related to each drug may be checked at the price list posted at the MoPH webpage.

A thorough process involving collaboration with Marketing Authorization Holders led to the compilation of a one comprehensive LASA list, attached below. As a final step before publication, we are extending an invitation to our stakeholders for their input during the last revision phase.

National Look Alike/Sound Alike (LASA) List

Invitation to Stakeholders:

In line with our commitment to transparency, safety, and continual improvement, the Quality Assurance of Pharmaceutical Products Program at the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) invites all stakeholders to participate in the revision of the National LASA list. This invitation is extended to Marketing Authorization Holders, Healthcare Professionals (HCPs), including but not limited to pharmacists, physicians, and nurses, as well as any individual or entity involved in pharmacovigilance activities in Lebanon.

Your Participation Matters:

Your active involvement in the public consultation phase is crucial for refining this important list. We welcome your valuable input, comments, and questions to enhance the accuracy and effectiveness of the National LASA list.

How to Participate:

Kindly provide your comments or feedback, by the 22nd of April 2024, through sending an email to either lasa.moph@gmail.com or lasa@moph.gov.lb. When naming your email, adhere to the convention: “LASA List Comments - [Your Company Name],” for example, "LASA List comments-Mersaco." Your cooperation with this naming convention is greatly appreciated.

Remarks:

The Quality Assurance of Pharmaceutical Products Program at the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) expresses gratitude to all stakeholders for their cooperation and dedication to advancing pharmacovigilance in Lebanon. Your engagement in the public consultation is invaluable, and together, we will establish new benchmarks for pharmaceutical safety and efficacy.

Thank you for your commitment to ensuring the highest standards in healthcare and medication safety.

Look Alike Sound Alike Project List to be filled by the drug distributors

On behalf of the Quality assurance of Pharmaceutical Products Program at the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), we are contacting you with an official request to provide information regarding your products in the context of a project on “Look-Alike Sound-Alike Medications”.

Literature shows that Look-Alike Sound-Alike (LASA) pairs are viewed as the cause of medication errors. LASA health products refer to names of different medicinal products that have orthographic similarities (look-alike in the way they are written), and/or phonetics similarities (sound-alike in the way they are pronounced), which is the main focus and scope of the required requested list. These similarities may pose serious health risk by causing errors in prescribing, dispensing or administering a product. LASA errors can result in overdosing, under-dosing, or inappropriate dosing.

Keeping in mind that potential for error is further increased by similar packaging, tablet appearance, tablet strength, or route of administration; which are not within this project scope.

The project aims to identify LASA pairs among the medications authorized for use in the Lebanese market that may be similarly written and/or have similar sounding brand names. Accordingly, a comprehensive list of LASA commonly confused medication names will be published.

You are therefore kindly requested to fill the provided excel sheet “LASA List to be filled with your products”, in which you shall identify any drug in your portfolio that matches another drug available for use in Lebanon that is written or pronounced like it.

To this end, you are kindly invited to apply the following instructions:
The excel sheet (link below): it is a list of the products authorized for use in Lebanon with their relevant information. It is extracted from the latest Drugs Public Price List from the MoPH’s official website. (extracted on 7th March, 2023)
LASA List to be filled by Drug distributors

For each of your products:

In the “Agent” column (Column C), apply the filter to choose your company name; this will display only your products in the “Brand name” column (Column D).
In the “MoH Drug Name” columns (column J), indicate for each of your products the identified list of drugs that may be written similarly to yours.
In the “MoH Drug Name” columns (column K) indicate for each of your products the identified list of drugs that may be pronounced similarly to yours.
For steps 3 and 4, please write NA If not applicable
Fill the “Comment” column (Column L) with any information present that you may find relevant.
Please refer to rows number 4, 5, and 6 as examples. These were extracted from the Institute for Safe Medications Practices List.
Send us the filled excel sheet at the following email addresses: lasa.moph@gmail.com or lasa@moph.gov.lb
Ensure that your file is named as follow: (name of the distributor-lasalist2023),Example: Mersaco-lasalist2023

You are kindly expected to reply back within 2 months after receiving this email (by May 31st, 2023), the latest.

Thank you for your time and cooperation.

Reminder,

Reference to previous communication related to the submission of the LASA (Look-Alike Sound-Alike) list, we would like to kindly remind all drug distributers and local manufacturers to complete the list by May 31st, 2023.

As per the previously shared instruction, the list must be filled out with utmost accuracy. It should be completed in accordance with the identified company's own LASA list. We stress the importance of adhering to these instructions to ensure the safety and efficacy of medication use.

In case there are no LASA products, please verify this by an email to lasa.moph@gmail.com.

We appreciate your cooperation in this matter.

Quality Assurance of Pharmaceutical Products Department
Lebanese National Pharmacovigilance Program