Cushing's Info

It has come to the attention of the PES (Pediatric Endocrine Society) that the National Drug Code (NDC) for injectable hydrocortisone (Solu-Cortef, Pfizer) has changed.  Pharmacies use NDCs when ordering drugs from suppliers, thus if the wrong NDC is used, then the drug is mistakenly believed to be 'discontinued' or 'back-ordered'.  Pharmacies may not be aware of the change in NDC and thus use outdated NDCs when ordering Solu-Cortef from suppliers.  Some families of patients with adrenal insufficiency have reported an inability to obtain the drug from pharmacies despite assurances from Pfizer that the drug is still in production.  Drug can be obtained if the correct NDC is used.

The new NDC numbers for Solu-Cortef are as follows:

Solu-Cortef 100 mg vial (without diluent)                                   NDC 0009-0825-01

Solu-Cortef 100 mg vial as Act-o-vial (w/2mL diluent)           NDC 0009-0011-03

Solu-Cortef 250 mg vial as Act-o-vial (w/2mL diluent)          NDC  0009-0013-05

If your patients have difficulty obtaining Solu-Cortef, please inform the families and local pharmacies about these updated numbers so that it can be ordered correctly.

More drug information is available at:

http://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/drugInfo.cfm?id=18255

Drug and Therapeutics Committee

From http://lwpes.org/NewsAlert/alert15.cfm