A Virginia Tech student claimed on Jan. 24 that she was given expired medication from the Kroger Pharmacy located on University City Boulevard.
Paige Einstein, a senior human nutrition foods and exercise major, claimed she received Ortho Evra, a birth-control medication, that had been expired for nine months.
"The date just caught my eye for some reason," Einstein said. "I could have gotten pregnant."
Like Einstein, many students use off-campus pharmacies rather than using Tech's Schiffert Pharmacy. Einstein said she had been going to Kroger to fill her prescription for two years because it was cheaper with her outside insurance and conveniently where she did her grocery shopping.
"Usually this doesn't happen," said Elizabeth Scott Russell, executive director of the Virginia State Board of Pharmacy. "It's obviously a violation of the law; expired medication can't be dispensed legally."
Russell explained the procedure for complaints against specific pharmacies and pharmacists. Most of the time, pharmacies deal with expired medication by offering refunds. Sometimes, if the Virginia State Board of Pharmacy receives a complaint it feels needs to be investigated, they will make a visit to the pharmacy and conduct an evaluation. If the evaluation finds something wrong with the pharmacy, the information is posted online and made available to the public.
As of press time, no information about the University City Boulevard Kroger Pharmacy was posted on its Web site.
Kroger did not return any phone calls from the Collegiate Times.
John Colella, regional pharmacy manager for Giant pharmacy, said that mistakes happen in the pharmaceutical industry but are always avoidable. He said that Giant limits errors by making sure it has policies and procedures in place that are strictly adhered to by the pharmacy staff, which would include regularly performing date checks.
"Just because the prescription was expired does not necessarily mean it was not effective; meaning it didn't necessarily increase her chances in becoming pregnant," said Colella. "However, in cases of birth control you don't want to take those types of chances."
When Einstein contacted Kroger Pharmacy, they told her to bring in the medication so she could receive a full refund.
Einstein then contacted the Virginia State Board of Pharmacy to file a complaint.
"I just want people to make sure to check their medication," Einstein said.