Hello everyone!
Here is my weekly US question. All the films and culture I’ve seen in America they use this semi transparent orange bottles with your name on a tag along with the name of the prescription.
Here comes the tricky part. I always though that you got a new bottle every time you went to the pharmacy for your medication, but apparently they refill them pill by pill! For me it is curious af because in every country I’ve been here in Europe I’ve used boxes that has blisters with the pills, and you get a new one every time you have it prescribed.
So why is this? Why do you refill your bottles instead of getting new ones? Doesn’t it have a risk of getting one or two more or less than normal? Is it true they are orange with your name on a tag?
Thanks in advance.
Comments
Yes. In my experience they are not refilled. I get a new bottle with a refill. “Refill” isn’t used in a literal way about the bottle.
Absolutely! I get a new bottle every time.
Yes. Mostly. One of mine comes in a factory sealed white bottle, but I still need to get it at the pharmacy.
There are some that come in blister packs. I have some right now that do. The bottles have been more common, though, in my experience.
I’ve always gotten a new bottle.
Orange is common, but ive also had brown and opaque white.
Often true, I’d call them translucent brown rather than orange.
Sometimes one gets a manufacturers box/packaging, not usually.
Tag is your name, drug name, drug strength (like 10 mg), drug quantity (like #30-30 pills) drug date filled, prescriber name, short instruction (like take twice a day with water), prescription number.
One pharmacy near me only fills Rxs in blister packs now.
Yes, it’s true most pharmacies in the U.S. dispense prescription pills in amber plastic bottles with child-resistant caps. The color helps protect medications from light. Pharmacies count the pills for each refill and print a personalized label with the patient’s name, drug info, dosage, and instructions. It’s done this way because medications in the U.S. often come in bulk to pharmacies, rather than in manufacturer blister packs like in Europe.
What about storage guys? Do you all keep it inside of the mirror at the top of the sink in the bathroom?
New orange bottle every time, usually with 30 or 90 days of medication unless the script calls for it differently.
Animal pharmacies do the same for pets. My dog’s bottles are blue.
Yes it’s the orange bottles. But it’s a new bottle for each refill (and a different one for each medication). They come with a label that has your name, your doctor’s name, the medication, the instructions for taking it, the date it was filled, the date it expires, any warnings (e.g. causes drowsiness, don’t take after eating).
I don’t know why we do it this way instead of the blister packs. Though the blister packs seem pretty inflexible — what if the doctor wants you to take a dose that doesn’t align with the blister packs, or if you’re a preteen and need a smaller dose? I guess the bottles (they’re filled by pharmacy technicians and checked by pharmacists) do introduce a risk of error, but I think that happens very rarely.
And some medications do come in blister packs. I don’t know why. But a migraine medication I used to take came in blisters, and I’ve usually seen azithromycin (a somewhat common antibiotic) in them too.
“refill” refers to how many times you can get more pills before you need a new prescription. A prescription for 120 days you may get 1 bottle with 3 refills before the DR has to write a new prescription. Each “refill” is a new bottle or box
My pill bottles are green because it’s the branding color used by my pharmacy. But yes, similar to the orange bottles you’ve seen – just a different color.
Most pharmacies in USA/Canada have bulk supply of medications that they count and dispense into those orange bottles, so people don’t have to be prescribed a set amount of whatever medication based on the box size. The orange bottles are also childproof making it harder for kids to access the meds and accidentally ingest them.
Yes. My veterinarian uses blue or green bottles for easy identification.
My partner is on multiple daily medications and ends up with a lot of bottles. A local pet-related charity asks for donations of empty pill bottles so they can reuse them for their clients, so every few months I go and drop off a bag of pill bottles.
The pharmacy and docs call them “refills”, but we do not bring in the old orange bottle (some bottles are white) the pharmacy gives you a different, new bottle.
A refill here means a new bottle of pills, not that they actually use the same bottle. Blister packs are only used here in long-term nursing care homes.
Most medication in the United States is filled and then refilled into new amber colored transparent bottles each time with labels printed on outside.
You can read about history and differences in bottle vs blister packaging for US vs Europe in this article
http://pharmanet.com.br/pdf/blister.pdf
Officially that color is called amber. My pharmacy uses green ones as our corporate colors are blue and green. You can also order dark blue or purple vials (the purple ones are supposed to be reserved for veterinary meds). Before Target’s pharmacy departments got bought out by CVS, they were famous for their red vials. The color is not important so long as they reduce the amount of light impinging on the tablets.
You always get a new vial with your prescription; we don’t reuse them. Legally any child resistant cap must be discarded after the prescription is used up; in theory we could reuse the vial and just give you a new lid, but if you’ve seen how gloppy those vials get after a month in someone’s pocket you wouldn’t want to reuse it.
Many meds can be ordered in blister packs for hospital use, but in retail pharmacy it’s almost all loose tablets. Exceptions are things that are especially moisture sensitive, like orally dissolving tablets; things that cause birth defects (Accutane, Thalomid) which come with actual pictures of what happens if you do take it while pregnant included in the package. Also oral contraceptives only come in packs of 28 or 91, because the tablets need to be taken in a specific order.
Some meds come in “unit of use” bottles of a months supply (30, 90, or whatever is typical); this is becoming more common.
There are two reasons I can think of for this. Well three really, the biggest is “We’ve always done it this way”, but the others are, firstly, not everyone gets the same amounts of tablets each time, especially with things like antibiotics or other non-chronic meds, and second, those blisters are torture for people with arthritis in their fingers. I’m in my late fifties and I can barely get them open myself; I’ve got patients thirty years older than I am. Every tine I dispense blister packed tabs because the others were out of stock, the patients disliked them.
Yeah there’s a risk of an under or over count. We try to minimize that risk. I have a counting machine on my counter, and if it’s a controlled substance I count by hand on a counting tray (and usually twice).
Depends on the medication and such. Some medications I take long term the pharmacy just sticks my name on the bottles from the manufacturer. Some come in transparent orange or solid white bottles.
If it’s something less common, shorter shelf life, or custom from a compounding pharmacy, then it could come in nearly anything. I think the blister pack type medications are usually things like z-packs and the like, a common, standard course of treatment that is prescribed frequently enough so you’d see savings in production costs vs tossing a number of pills in a bottle. Or maybe it’s something like an EU regulation to reduce plastic waste, since those pill bottles are disposable.
Yes because a lot of the really common meds come in bottles of 500 or 1000. We count them out.
Mostly yes but here’s a common exception: Oral contraceptive pills come in some sort of blister pack with the days numbered, as it so important to keep track of the day in the cycle and to differentiate when to take the active vs placebo pills.
You refill the prescription, not the bottle. Prescription bottles are single use plastic.
They also come in green and blue, though I’ve only gotten those with animal medications.
A word about childproof caps:
Yes, the law says medicine is dispensed in bottles with childproof caps, and this is a good law and has saved lives. But you can get your prescriptions in bottles without them if you ask. You will have to sign a waiver every time, but if you don’t have young children in your home it’s worth it for the convenience.
Interestingly, veterinarians dispense medication in bottles with apps that are childproof if put on one way, and not childproof if put on upside down. And some mail order pharmacies use this type as well.
The orange bottle are not refilled hopefully people a recycling them. Some medicines come in their own packaging as well.
Interesting fact: Many prescriptions for pets can be filled at a regular pharmacy as well. They come in transparent dark blue bottles instead of amber
It is possible for them to miscount- I had the pharmacist call me once and ask me to double check my prescription count because they found out somehow they were short a couple pills and didn’t know which person they gave them to, it wasn’t me though lol.
They don’t refill the same bottle you get a new orange bottle each time. Refill just means you can have the pharmacy fill your prescription again x amount of times without your Dr writing a new one for you!
I don’t mind putting my meds out there, OP, so here are pics of a couple I take. One is in the standard orange container and the other came in the manufacturer’s container, but with a label slapped on. If they have a full container and you’re being prescribed the same amount as what’s in that full container, they’ll just slap a label on the bottle and send it that way.
https://imgur.com/a/G2vmGTB
Your “refill” comes in a brand new orange bottle every time. Such immense quantities of waste. Some day, they will find me crushed under hundreds of those little orange bottles.
Yes but the containers aren’t reused. There is however a box at the pharmacy where I dispose of them.
That said all the pharmacies around me give you the option of blister packs which is what I now use
Most medications are put into those orange bottles because the pharmacies get them in large quantity bottles from the manufacturers, and usually a single prescription isn’t as many pills as come in a manufacturer bottle.
I do have a medication that I take a high daily dose of, that isn’t made in the dose I take. I take three pills each day to equal my dose, so a 90 day prescription is 270 pills. The manufacturer sends my pharmacy bottles of 270 pills for that medicine, so my pharmacy gives me the manufacturer bottle with my prescription tag on it, rather than pouring the whole bottle into an orange bottle.
Mine come in a clear green container
My pharmacy uses green, but yeah.
They have specifcally trained people who spend a lot of time counting out the pills. Granted we also have some medicine that comes in boxes too. But the vast majority comes in those little orange bottles.
Half my meds come in orange bottles and half in the manufacturer packaging. I think its more dependent on if the prescription amount is less than the manufacturer’s package comes with. I think most of the time, manufacturers package far more than typically is perscribed so it gets separated after.
This is just a guess based on my own scripts though
The orange bottles are not refilled. I’m kinda glad i don’t get all blister packs, though–I take one over the counter medication daily that’s in a blister pack that is apparently bear-proof, drives me crazy!
You get a new bottle each time. Most medication comes in large stock bottle containing 500+ tablets, capsules, etc. Most prescriptions call for 30/60/90 tablets, etc, so the pharmacy staff counts out what’s needed for every prescription from these stock bottles.
Some medication, like birth control, migraine medication, etc come in foil packaging so the prescription is filled by 1 pack of birth control or 10 individually packaged tablets. Individually foil tablets can be for the convenience of the patient, so you can travel with your migraine medication and take it as needed, or sublingual (under the tongue) so they are not damaged by moisture. Inhalers, etc are also prepackaged.
Medication bottles are not taken back/refilled at the pharmacy for health reasons. You don’t want the risk of cross contamination/allergies/some medication dust is DANGEROUS (ie Warfarin cotton packaging is considered hazardous waste) Plus easier & cheaper tp get boxes of fresh new bottles vs somehow cleaning returned bottles.
They may be recycled in some areas, but the bottles can be upcycled for storage, camping matches, etc. You know what was in them so it’s safe for you to reuse
Birth control comes in a blister pack
It’s mostly orange bottles with childproof lids. Sometimes when the quantity you need is the same or larger than the quantity in the bottle they’ll give you the bottle the meds originally came in since it’s precounted.
I prefer it this way, I did work in a pharmacy for a bit, it’s a pretty sterile environment and lots of meds are counted on a tray before they’re added to a bottle.
I have a medication that insurance doesn’t cover but if I order it through Canada it’s 1/10th the cost. It’s been filled in Canada, India, Sri Lanka, and Australia, always comes in blister packs which I accept, just takes a little longer popping them all out.
Another quick question, here in Spain Social Security covers almost all the cost of the medication, or in my case since I’m handicapped the 100% of it. How is it in the US? Do you pay full price for your meds? Because there was this time where I had to pay for my sleeping pills and it was 100 euros a month in pills just for sleeping because since the medication is new Social Security doesn’t cover it.
But since your healthcare is private, how do you handle how much you pay for your meds? Specially the ridiculous amounts one? Like 3000$ a month one and such?
It’s CALLED a “refill,” but it’s actually a new bottle. My understanding is that there are actually labeling laws that apply to the little bottles, so they can’t be officially reused by the pharmacy.
I wish they could just refill the bottles. I take 8 prescriptions a day, so that means 8 empty bottles a month.
It’s a small pharmacy,so I’ll talk to them to see if there’s a more earth-friendly option.
Hi! I’m an old pharmacist. Yes, we use those bottles. They also come in green or blue. We used to reuse them and either slap a new label on top or peel the old labels off and put a new one on. Now we use a new bottle every time. Most of our meds come in bulk bottles of 100, 500, or 1000 count. Some do come in unit of use blister packs or a one month supply bottle and you can put the label on the manufacturer’s bottle.
Currently outside of the US and all of my prescription meds have come in blister packs. When I’m in the States my medicine normally comes in the translucent orange or opaque white bottles, but I have not gotten the same medicine in the US as outside the US so idk.
It is the prescription that is refilled, not the bottle. You get a brand new bottle every time. When a scrip is used up, the bottle gets discarded
Pharmacies receive the pills in bulk, they then dispense the amount of pills the patient is set to receive into one of those orange bottles.
So as others have said, a refill isn’t bringing the bottle back and adding more- it’s getting another bottle. However it is worth noting that many prescriptions are filled at the pharmacy by a tech counting pills and putting them in the bottle- so they do fill them at the pharmacy from a larger container, they are just not reusing the bottles.
Sometimes if you’re getting a large enough prescription (eg, for 90 days) they will come in the original manufacturer’s bottle.
umm what?
A lot of prescription medicines come to the pharmacy in bulk containers. The pharmacy fills a prescription for each patient, and usually in a 30 or 90 day supply of pills. They take a pill bottle, and count each pill (there are robotic pill counters) to put into each prescription bottle.
We don’t usually take the plastic bottle back to reuse. I recycle my plastic pill bottles the same way I recycle my soda bottles
Canada here: my pill bottles are green
Do the European pill boxes have safety features to keep children from getting the medicine? The orange bottles also have special lids to help prevent little kids from getting into your medicine?
As a caveat I have had prescription drugs dispensed in a blister pack in the us. Birth control pills pretty much always come in a blister pack with days of the week up top. I also once got a ziplock bag with the proper number of blisters in it and my information sticker on the bag itself lol.
I have also on occasion gotten the manufacturers original bottle with the sticker on it if it happens to come on the amount I needed.
But yes we generally get them in the orange bottles. In the back of the pharmacy they have big bottles with loads of pills in them and they just put the right number in the orange bottles.
Yes to orange bottles, and they are filled at the pharmacy. New bottle each time though. Occasionally things that come in special packaging you still get the original package… Birth control and azithromycin come to mind. Once I got a blister pack folded into an orange bottle.
To answer your question about missing a pill or two, typically they’re pretty accurate. They have special tools to count the pills, it’s not just someone counting by hand.
The only pills that I’ve ever gotten in a blister pack were my birth control pills. Sometimes the pills come in manufacturer’s bottles (like opaque bottles you might see for over the counter meds), but most commonly if the pharmacy is filling the prescription it’s an orange translucent bottle like you describe.
They are child safe containers.
Yes!
I work in the industry and drug companies literally have to make different packaging for different countries because of this. In the U.S., most pills are counted out by pharmacists and provided in those plastic prescription bottles. We can produce the tablets in bulk. In EU and other countries, we have to put them into the cards for distribution
I’m in Canada and I also get most of my medication loose in bottles. I think the only medication I get that comes in blister packs is my birth control.
The prescription is “refilled”, but the bottles are not; you get a new bottle each time.
imagine going to the pharmacy with an empty bottle for a refill. that would have lines through the door. i just walk in and thy hand me a bag with my new bottles. i can’t even get the pharmacy to take my old bottles of old meds, they told me to throw them in the trash
America also has blister packs for medicines that are sensitive to moisture.
Otherwise, as other comments have noted, the bottle is used to protect the pills from light and to fill the individual prescription.
> Doesn’t it have a risk of getting one or two more or less than normal?
Starting in preschool, our best counters are put on a pharmacy track, with those counting skills honed ever further through their education.
It the pharmacy the medication comes in large bottles 500-1000 pills. When you get a prescription it will be for 30-60- some other amount. The pharmacy tech “fills” the prescription by counting the proper amount out of the big bottle and puts them in a secondary container (the orange vial) with the patients info and instructions. Some meds do come individually packaged from the manufacturer and the pharmacist just puts the patients sticker on the outside of it.
Controlled drugs don’t have a different sticker. It looks the same but may have more warning stickers on the bottle along with the instructions.
And, yes, whenever you go to pick up a new script it will be in a new bottle. I don’t know how you would reuse the old one. If I’m getting a refill I do it before I run out of the current script.
We don’t re-use the bottle, but I’ll definitely take the bottles over a box thanks. They’re sturdy, weatherproof mostly, and child resistant.
Never brought bottles back to pharmacy to be refilled. They go in recycle bin after label removed
It is a new bottle every time. Most medications are purchased in bulk quantities by the pharmacy because it’s cheaper that way. Then they just dispense whatever quantity the patient needs. The correct term for the color of the bottle is amber, though some pharmacies use other colors of vials as well (blue or green is kind of common)…basically anything light-resistant.
Yes, but they are never refilled. Some meds come in pre-filled bottles.
You get a new bottle of pills each time a prescription is filled/refilled. Some medication does come in blister packs and boxes, not all.
Yes, prescriptions are filled and dispensed in the orange bottle. A new bottle is provided with every refill, we don’t reuse the bottles.
Worked as a pharmacy tech for a few years. Everything must be labeled with the pertinent information – name, medication, quantity, instructions, doctor, Rx #, fill date, pharmacy, etc. Most stuff comes in big containers that you pour into the orange ones, which you then label.
You don’t reuse pill bottles, you get new ones with new labels. The “refill” bit comes from prescriptions being for an x-day supply, plus n refills. The pharmacy is limited to filling an x-day supply at a time, up to n times, before the Rx expiration (typically 1 year). That’s to prevent abuse and waste – pharmacies won’t dispense the next batch too soon after the last for controlled substances, and insurance won’t cover huge supplies because you may not need it for that long, or you may need a dose adjustment, or you may lose the pills in the interim.
A few common options for pills:
Bulk bottles that you count from, or that get emptied into a machine that counts/dispenses/labels for you. They commonly have multiples of 100 (100, 500, 1000 are pretty common).
Bottles that have a typical supply (e.g. 30 or 90 days) that you can label directly (and leave sealed), or that you can count from if you want to use a pharmacy container. Obviously you can also empty them into the machine.
Blister packs – label the box if dispensing the whole thing, or fold/cut the blisters and stick them in a regular pill bottle and label that. Some will throw the blisters directly into the baggie and label that, but I think that’s poor practice since the baggies are fragile and not childproof (if the blisters are cut into small pieces, they could present a choking hazard).
Blister dose packs for e.g. azithromycin, methylprednisolone, or fluconazole will have instructions on the box, so if the doctor’s instructions match (or they say to follow the directions on the box), it’s best to keep the box whole and apply the label where it tells you to. But sometimes the doctor wants a dose pack and all you have is regular containers or partial boxes, so you have to use a pill bottle. And sometimes they want a different prescription but all you have is dose packs, so you get creative with the cutting to obfuscate manufacturer directions.
You can get medications in a variety of containers depending on the type of medication.
Some come prepackages (blisterpack), cream, injectable, spray, pill/capsule (bottle). It can be up to the manufacturer as to how it’s packaged. Some pharmacies will repackage them depending on their need (i.e. buying in bulk for high volume refills, breaking out of blister packs for repackaging different prescription duration/usage and repackaging into bottles, etc).
Both the federal government and each individual state have rules about how medications are handled, packaged, and delivered. Typically when you get a prescription filled you can get either a 90 day supply by consolidating all your 30 day refills. Or you can spread them out and start with a 30 day supply and have 2 additional refills for when you need get them later. 90 days tends to be cheaper and less waste from containers, but doesn’t work for all medications due to cost or type of medication. But once you run out you throw the pill bottle away and get a new refill/new bottle of meds. They can’t refill the old one due to sanitation and cross-contamination issues. Even if they’re refilling with the same drug, since they can’t account for individual hygiene standards of the patient.
Yes, the orange clear plastic bottles are a thing. Packaging depends on the med and the pharmacy, but the orangish yellow bottles are the most common. You get a new bottle with every new prescription or refill. They are not re-usable
It depends. Some of my prescriptions come in these bottles. I am given a new bottle every time I go in. They fill these bottle from giant bottles. I’m having problems finding pictures of the medication storage of a pharmacy. They dump their giant bottle on this and count out pills. Or they punch numbers into the right dispenser and the pills come out.
My antibiotics came in a blister pack. My xarelto, they pull a bottle off a shelf, put a tag on in, and throw it in a bag.
It is rough finding pictures of the storage area! 1 , 2 , 3 this last one is “rural” non chain pharmacy.
They’re disposable and pharmacists love them. They’re obsessed with them. A number of times I’ve had a prescription filled that they could have just given to me in the drug company’s plastic bottles, but instead they combined them all into an orange plastic bottle.
In most pharmacies they buy the medication in bulk. So a bottle or box will have like 500 pill but the average person’s script will call for 10. So they dose out your 10 pills from the big bottles they have. And that’s where your meds come from.
Yes, they are orange and labeled. No, they do not get refilled pill by pill. They can’t be reused at all. Where did you get that impression?
You 100% get a new bottle each time
I’ve got an entire big box of old pill bottles that I don’t want to throw out because I figure I may have a use for them one day
As others have mentioned, the refill on the label just tells you how many refills you have on the prescription before you have to go back to the doctor to get a new prescription
Depends on the medication. Some come in a box. Most come in the orange bottles and yes you get a new bottle every time. Reusing bottles is a health code violation I think
You don’t refill the bottles. You get new ones each time. There are places that take the bottles for recycling, such as sending to countries where people have to carry prescriptions in paper because they are too poor for bottles.
Reading this as I currently sit in a Pharmaceutical bottling plant watching them get filled. White bottles not orange though.
I think the color of the plastic is just to prevent from getting light onto the pills because some drugs er sensitive for light. You shall avoid to store drugs in warm and even humid rooms, so i would not recomend to store them in the bathroom.
I’ve received ~ 5 of those bottles every 2 months for ten years.
Some pharmacies take them back but no one would refill a bottle that’s brought back.
I’ve been on pharmaceuticals via Medicaid (low-income public healthcare) for 10 years straight and worked with a lot of different pharmacies in multiple states, so…
AMA!
Most pills come from larger bulk containers and are dispensed into individual quantities as prescribed.
Pill Packs are a thing, however, Amazon will package your prescriptions by day and hour so all you have to do is read the label and take your pills at on the day/time specified in the package. The package will contain all the pills you need to take at that time on that day. Look up Amazon Pillpack
You get new bottles every time you refill your prescription. I have tried to recycle. They don’t. I find it a huge waste. Trust me…I take over 30 prescriptions daily.
A refill means that you get an entirely new bottle of pills without having to give the pharmacy a new prescription. It does not mean that the pharmacy takes your old bottle and refills it.
Pharmacies buy in bulk and dispense what is ordered
Never had a prescription bottle refilled ever. Always a new bottle.
Yep. The orange-brown bottle is to prevent light from altering the chemicals … we get a new bottle each time.
They refill the prescription not the bottle 🙂
Prescription bottles are never reused in that way. That wouldn’t even be legal, so I have no idea how you arrived at the conclusion that it’s the normal practice. I know you haven’t actually seen it in real life. You get a new bottle every month, or whatever your “refill” interval is.