Allergan ($AGN) Monday said it was going to pull some of its eye drugs from the market because of a problem with particles shedding from the tube cap which led to a "small number of customer complaints." The small number is nearly two dozen, including 12 consumers who said they had a foreign object in their eye as well as one report of swelling and another of blurred vision.
The drugmaker responded Monday that it was voluntarily pulling 55 lots of the drugs from the market. The recall is for 32 lots of Refresh PM, 12 lots of Refresh Lacrilube, three lots of fluorometholone ophthalmic ointment and three of Blephamide.
"Allergan chose to initiate this recall based on a small number of customer complaints which reported a small black particle at the time of use," the company said in a release. "This black particle, which is part of the cap, can be created by the action of unscrewing the cap from the aluminum tube, and potentially introduced into the product."
Eye drugs are a particular focus of the Irish drugmaker since its $66.5 billion tie-up with Actavis earlier this year. Generics maker Actavis took on the Allergan name and said it would be primarily a branded drug company after buying the maker of Botox, which also had the portfolio of eye drugs. Late last month, it confirmed that decision with a $40.5 billion deal to sell its generics business to Teva ($TEVA).
It is the second significant recall for Allergan in recent weeks. Last month it began retrieving 26 lots, more than half a million boxes, of its Lutera birth control pills after discovering their inserts were missing.
- here's the release