Teva Pharmaceutical Industries ($TEVA), whose manufacturing operation is being significantly pared down, is recalling one lot of its generic Parkinson's combo drug carbidopa/levodopa because it may have too much active pharmaceutical ingredient.
The drugmaker said the Class II recall involved 3,881 bottles of carbidopa/levodopa 25 mg/100 mg. Teva said that stability testing found that the product might be "superpotent." The voluntary recall is for the entire U.S.
The Israel-based drugmaker has had a number of significant recalls this year. In June it announced it was recalling nearly 130,000 cartons of its Tev-Tropin human growth hormone for children because there was a chance that oil leaked into it. In April the company voluntarily recalled more than 1 million bottles of its just-released generic of Eli Lilly's ($LLY) blockbuster antidepressant Cymbalta.
Teva is going through a major restructuring as it works to cut about $2 billion in costs. Its manufacturing network is being substantially pared to help achieve those cuts. CFO Eyal Desheh has told analysts that Teva intends to close roughly half of its 75 plants in the next four to 5 years. That is being done even as it builds some new facilities in faster growing markets like Russia.
- here's the recall notice