Teva Pharmaceutical Industries ($TEVA) voluntarily recalled 8 lots of a cancer drug a couple of months ago after rubber particles were found in some containers. Now the generics maker says the problem is more widespread than it first thought and more units will need to be retrieved.
Teva issued a voluntary recall on Monday for 6 more lots of Adrucil, saying there is the potential some may have particulate matter that it identified as aggregate of silicone rubber pieces from a filler diaphragm, as well as fluorouracil crystals.
The drugmaker hasn't heard of any adverse events from the particulate but warned that reactions could be life-threatening blockages for patients who are injected with particles. The drug, which is packaged in pharmacy bulk packages, is used in the palliative management of carcinoma of the colon, rectum, breast, stomach and pancreas.
The recall of the units came on the same day that the Israel-based generics giant announced it had set aside its pursuit of Mylan ($MYL) and had inked a $40.5 billion deal to buy the generics unit of Allergan ($AGN), formerly Actavis. Allergan has stumbled over some manufacturing issue itself of late. It recalled more than half a million boxes of Lutera birth control pills earlier this month after discovering that the inserts were missing. The pills were manufactured for Actavis by Patheon.
- here's the recall notice