MedDRA preferred term

Pharmaceutical product complaint: adverse event reports recording this term

25,474 reports to FDA record it, 2004–2008; 0.1% of the database.

Read first · FDA's statement on these data

Adverse event reports submitted to FDA do not undergo extensive validation or verification. Therefore, a causal relationship cannot be established between product and reactions listed in a report. While a suspected relationship may exist, it is not medically validated and should not be the sole source of information for clinical decision making or other assumptions about the safety or efficacy of a product. Additionally, it is important to remember that adverse event reports represent a small percentage of total usage numbers of a product. Common products may have a higher number of adverse events due to the higher total number of people using the product. openFDA, FDA

FDA adds: "There is no certainty that the reported event (adverse event or medication error) was actually due to the product. FDA does not require that a causal relationship between a product and event be proven, and reports do not always contain enough detail to properly evaluate an event." The information in these reports "cannot be used to estimate the incidence of these events."

Do not rely on openFDA to make decisions regarding medical care. While we make every effort to ensure that data is accurate, you should assume all results are unvalidated.

Not medical advice. This site counts what was reported to FDA. Questions about a medicine or device belong with a pharmacist or clinician.

25,474
reports recording the term: 0.1% of all reports; 0
reports, 12 months to June 2026: 0 in the 12 months before; 62.6%
marked serious by the reporter: 57.4% across all reports; 2.9%
record death among outcomes, as reported: 9.1% across all reports

"Pharmaceutical product complaint" is a MedDRA preferred term recorded in 25,474 adverse event reports received by FDA, 0.1% of the database, from January 2004 to September 2008. The term is chosen by whoever codes the report to match what the reporter described.

0 reports recorded it in the 12 months to June 2026, and none in the 12 months before. FDA releases FAERS data quarterly, so the newest months are incomplete and grow in later releases. Of reports recording this term, 62.6% are marked serious, 2.9% include death among the outcomes and 16.4% include hospitalisation, as reported.

The drugs listed most often as suspect products in those reports are Forteo, Advair Diskus 100/50 and Koate. That order mostly follows how many reports each drug has overall; the table also gives the term's share within each drug's own reports. FDA states that "a causal relationship cannot be established between product and reactions listed in a report" and that for any given report "there is no certainty that a suspected drug caused the event."

Reports by month, five years

FDA releases FAERS data quarterly, so the newest months are incomplete and grow in later releases.

Drugs listed as suspect products in these reports

Drug	Class	Reports with this term	Share of the drug's own reports
Forteo	Parathyroid hormone analog	1,719	1.7%
Advair Diskus 100/50	—	1,424	10.4%
Koate	—	931	84.4%
Konyne	—	926	87.9%
Factor ix complex	—	887	80.3%
Antihemophilic factor (human)	—	755	77.5%
Hemofil	—	684	67.9%
Proplex T	—	667	77.2%
Humalog	Insulin analog	654	0.9%
Alli	Intestinal lipase inhibitor	609	2.9%
Advair Hfa	Corticosteroid	561	2.9%
Factor Viii	—	552	76.5%
Imitrex	Serotonin-1b and Serotonin-1d receptor agonist	453	6%
Humulin N	Insulin	429	3.9%
Flovent	Corticosteroid	309	2.9%
Digoxin	Cardiac glycoside	301	1.9%
Humulin R	Insulin	291	3.5%
Duragesic-100	—	270	2.8%
Nicorette	Cholinergic nicotinic agonist	267	2.1%
Wellbutrin	Aminoketone	265	2%
Fentanyl	Opioid agonist	262	0.5%
Fentanyl Transdermal System	—	258	2%
Paxil	Serotonin reuptake inhibitor	258	1.1%
Humulin 70/30	Insulin	226	3.3%
Neurontin	—	215	0.9%

Drugs with a page on this site, ordered by the number of their reports recording this term. The last column is the term's share within that drug's own reports, against 0.1% across the whole database. FDA states that adverse event reports "represent a small percentage of total usage numbers of a product", that "common products may have a higher number of adverse events due to the higher total number of people using the product", and that the data "by themselves are not an indicator of the safety profile of the drug or biologic."

By pharmacologic class

Class	Reports with this term	Share of class reports	Median drug in class
Parathyroid hormone analog	1,719	1.6%	0.9%
Corticosteroid	1,260	0.2%	0%
Insulin analog	987	0.3%	0%
Insulin	969	2.7%	0.3%
Serotonin reuptake inhibitor	910	0.3%	0.2%
Opioid agonist	828	0.1%	0%
Anti-epileptic agent	782	0.3%	0.1%
Intestinal lipase inhibitor	611	2.5%	0.1%
Aminoketone	573	0.8%	0.2%
beta2-Adrenergic agonist	462	0.5%	0%

Classes ordered by count. Class shares follow the class's overall report volume as much as anything else.

Patients in these reports

Patient age

Under 20.4%113

2 to 112%519

12 to 171.2%313

18 to 4412.3%3,144

45 to 6422.9%5,840

65 to 7410.4%2,641

75 and over10.4%2,653

Age not given40.2%10,251

Patient sex

Female58.5%14,902

Male35.9%9,142

Not given5.6%1,430

Grey bar: all 20,646,523 reports in the database. 60.8% of these reports give the United States as the country.

Questions about "Pharmaceutical product complaint"

What does "Pharmaceutical product complaint" mean in an adverse event report?

It is a MedDRA preferred term, the dictionary FDA uses to code what a reporter described. The report's own description is not published by openFDA and is not shown here.

How many reports record pharmaceutical product complaint?

25,474 reports through June 2026 (0.1% of all reports), 0 of them in the latest 12 months.

Which drugs appear most often in these reports?

Forteo (1,719), Advair Diskus 100/50 (1,424), Koate (931), Konyne (926) and Factor ix complex (887). Drugs with many reports overall lead almost every term's list. FDA states that adverse event reports "represent a small percentage of total usage numbers of a product", that "common products may have a higher number of adverse events due to the higher total number of people using the product", and that the data "by themselves are not an indicator of the safety profile of the drug or biologic."

Does a drug appearing here mean it was responsible for this reaction?

No. FDA states that "a causal relationship cannot be established between product and reactions listed in a report" and that for any given report "there is no certainty that a suspected drug caused the event."

I have this symptom. What should I do?

This site cannot assess anyone. A pharmacist or clinician can; for an emergency, call the local emergency number. Nothing on this page is medical advice.

Where this comes from. Counts are built from the openFDA Drug Adverse Event (FAERS) bulk export released 28 Sep 2026, which holds reports FDA received through 30 Jun 2026. Drug names are as reported, resolved to the brand or generic name on the FDA label where openFDA's harmonisation matched them; classes are the pharmacologic class (EPC) from the label and the National Drug Code Directory of 17 Sep 2026. Terms are pooled across spelling and capitalisation variants of one MedDRA preferred term. No report narrative, lot number, patient detail or reporter identity is published. See the methodology and sources; FDA's record is authoritative, and corrections are handled within five working days.

Drug data (FAERS) through 30 Jun 2026; device data (MAUDE) through 31 Aug 2026. Not medical advice.