Qualitest Pharmaceuticals, an Alabama-based pharmaceutical company, has issued a voluntary national recall of 1.4 million packages of oral contraceptives on Friday due to what they called a packaging error.

A spokesman for Qualitest Pharmaceuticals stressed that they were not worried about any health issues arising from it. But the company had taken the drastic action because it was primarily concerned about the unintended pregnancies after women took the oral contraceptive, he said.

According to a statement from the company, select blisters (found inside the pill box) were rotated 180 degrees within the card, reversing the weekly tablet orientation. This left the pills' lot number and the expiry date no longer visible.

The recall affects Cyclafem 7/7/7, Cyclafem 1/35, Emoquette, Gildess FE 1.5/30, Gildess FE 1/20, Orsythia, Previfem and Tri-Previfem.

Birth control pills, which contain estrogen and progesterone, prevent the release of an egg by fooling the body to believe that it has already done so.