MedDRA preferred term · the wrong medicine was given

Wrong drug administered: adverse event reports recording this term

8,915 reports to FDA record it, 2005–2018; 0% 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.

8,915
reports recording the term: 0% of all reports; 0
reports, 12 months to June 2026: 0 in the 12 months before; 48.9%
marked serious by the reporter: 57.4% across all reports; 5.4%
record death among outcomes, as reported: 9.1% across all reports

8,915 reports in FDA's adverse event database record the MedDRA term "Wrong drug administered" (in plain words, the wrong medicine was given): 0% of all reports received between January 2005 and September 2018. Coders pick the term that best matches the reporter's description.

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, 48.9% are marked serious, 5.4% include death among the outcomes and 21.4% include hospitalisation, as reported.

The drugs listed most often as suspect products in those reports are Humalog, Humalog Mix75/25 and Lantus. 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
Humalog	Insulin analog	1,083	1.5%
Humalog Mix75/25	Insulin analog	357	4.4%
Lantus	Insulin analog	335	0.9%
Nexium	Proton pump inhibitor	230	0.3%
Dianeal Low Calcium Peritoneal Dialysis Solution with Dextrose	—	208	0.3%
Novolog	Insulin analog	176	1.2%
Seroquel	Atypical antipsychotic	145	0.3%
Humulin N	Insulin	144	1.3%
Solostar	—	143	1.2%
Humulin R	Insulin	131	1.6%
Humira	—	99	0%
Cetirizine hydrochloride	Histamine-1 receptor antagonist	98	0.5%
Zyrtec	Histamine-1 receptor antagonist	97	0.5%
Apidra	Insulin analog	90	2.5%
Dianeal Low Calcium	—	85	0.3%
Lantus Solostar	Insulin analog	83	0.2%
Humulin 70/30	Insulin	72	1%
Ibuprofen	Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug	71	0.1%
Levemir	Insulin analog	66	0.5%
Allegra	—	64	0.5%
Insulin lispro	Insulin analog	62	0.8%
Apidra SoloStar	Insulin analog	61	4.4%
Methergine	—	61	15.1%
Prolia	RANK ligand inhibitor	61	0%
Extraneal	Osmotic laxative	60	0.2%

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% 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
Insulin analog	2,511	0.9%	0.3%
Insulin	439	1.2%	1%
Atypical antipsychotic	382	0.1%	0%
Proton pump inhibitor	365	0.1%	0%
Histamine-1 receptor antagonist	307	0.2%	0%
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug	294	0.1%	0%
Opioid agonist	171	0%	0%
Osmotic laxative	126	0.1%	0%
Corticosteroid	123	0%	0%
Serotonin reuptake inhibitor	116	0%	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 23.9%348

2 to 113.9%346

12 to 171.6%145

18 to 449.5%846

45 to 6415.2%1,356

65 to 749.2%822

75 and over9.1%809

Age not given47.6%4,243

Patient sex

Female48.6%4,335

Male35.2%3,136

Not given16.2%1,444

Grey bar: all 20,646,523 reports in the database. 78.5% of these reports give the United States as the country.

Questions about "Wrong drug administered"

What does "Wrong drug administered" mean in an adverse event report?

In plain language: the wrong medicine was given. 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 wrong drug administered?

8,915 reports through June 2026 (0% of all reports), 0 of them in the latest 12 months.

Which drugs appear most often in these reports?

Humalog (1,083), Humalog Mix75/25 (357), Lantus (335), Nexium (230) and Dianeal Low Calcium Peritoneal Dialysis Solution with Dextrose (208). 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.