Case · Contextual word error

Top 3 FDA DailyMed label errors spellcheck missed: "doctor" for "water", "ever" for "per", "attach" for "attack"

Human-verified by ContextRx · Company class: US OTC labeler · Severity: high

What do these three errors have in common?

Three live FDA DailyMed labels each shipped a real English word in the wrong place, and each one sat in the part of the label a reader goes to when something has gone wrong. ContextRx human-verified all three. None of them is a misspelling, so a spellchecker has nothing to flag.

Here they are, shortest version first. Each links to the full case.

1. A rinse instruction that named a person

On a sanitizing-wipe Drug Facts panel, the eye-contact first-aid line named the wrong thing to flush with.

Published: doctor · Required: water

Both words are spelled correctly, so spellcheck cleared it. A reviewer reading the first-aid block for meaning should have caught that a person had replaced the rinse fluid, and the same wrong noun on more than one label points to a template, not one slip. Full case: FDA DailyMed wipe label said "doctor" instead of "water"

2. A daily alcohol limit that stopped making sense

In a Drug Facts warning about drinking alcohol while using an OTC pain reliever, the short word that sets the daily frequency was swapped.

Published: ever · Required: per

Short function words pass any dictionary and slide past a tired eye. An RA or QC reviewer reading the warning aloud should have heard that the daily limit no longer read as a limit. Full case: FDA DailyMed warning said "ever" instead of "per"

3. A cardiovascular warning that lost its event

In an OTC NSAID Drug Facts cardiovascular warning, the word that names the serious event became a different verb.

Published: attach · Required: attack

The two words share letters and rhythm, and both are in every dictionary. A medical writer checking that warning block should have expected the named clinical event and noticed it was missing. Full case: FDA DailyMed NSAID warning said "attach" instead of "attack"

What the three have in common

Each is a contextual word error: correctly spelled, wrong for the sentence, and sitting on a high-stakes line. Tools cleared them. A human reading for sense would not. The labels came from three different company classes: an overseas importer of personal-care sanitizing wipes, a US OTC repackager / private-label distributor, and a US OTC labeler. ContextRx does not name the companies or products.

More cases on what slips past spellcheck on FDA DailyMed: https://contextrx.io/hub

Which review step would have caught them?

Questions about this case

Does spellcheck catch wrong words on drug labels?

No. All three errors are correctly spelled words, so spellcheck passes them.

What do these three label errors have in common?

Each is a real word on a high-stakes line that flips the meaning while the sentence still reads as English.

Which review step catches them?

A human reading the line for meaning, not a dictionary check.

We scan freshly published FDA DailyMed labels every day and pull out these high-stakes wrong words.

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