Drug repackagers: why your bottle names a company you've never heard of

If your bottle names a company you've never heard of, it may be a repackager: a business that buys medicine in bulk from the maker and puts it in smaller bottles or unit-dose packs.

Repackagers supply mail-order pharmacies, doctors' offices, urgent-care clinics, hospitals and nursing homes. They register with FDA and file their own labels, each with its own NDC, so the repackager's name is the one you see.

Finding the real maker

A repackager's label usually lists the NDC of the product it repackaged. Look up your NDC here and we follow that link back, through more than one repackager if needed, to the company that made the pills and the plants its label names.

Is repackaged medicine worse?

Not by itself. Repackagers have to follow FDA's manufacturing rules, and their plants are inspected too; you'll find them on this site. Repackaging does add a step where mix-ups or storage problems can happen, which is why some recalls come from repackagers rather than makers.