Allergan recalls eye drugs after patients complain of particles, blurred vision

Since Allergan ($AGN) and Actavis joined hands to become a new-look Allergan, the company has already had to recall a product from the Actavis side. Now, it's recalling some from the Allergan side, putting a call out for certain lots of eye-treatment ointments sold in the U.S.--and it's already received some consumer complaints.

The Dublin drugmaker is asking for the ointments--sold under the brands Refresh, Lacri-Lube and others--to be returned following a "small number" of customer complaints reporting a small black particle in the product. The particle is created when unscrewing the cap from the aluminum tube, and it can enter the ointment, Allergan said Monday.

So far, the company has received 12 complaints of a foreign body in the eye, as well as reports of eye irritation, eye swelling and blurred vision. It'll be contacting retailers and wholesalers who have been shipped the affected product lots to kick-start the recall, and it's providing them information on how to return lots.

The Irish pharma has already recalled a product this summer, asking for 26 lots of contraceptives back because of packaging problems. It began recollecting 511,283 boxes of Lutera birth control pills after discovering their inserts were missing, it said in July.

Allergan has been doubling down on its branded drugs--including its legacy eye meds--ever since agreeing to join up with Actavis last November. And late last month, it decided that was the direction it'd be taking from here on out, agreeing to sell off its generics business to Teva ($TEVA) for $40.5 billion.

- read Allergan's release