The other shoe has dropped for Teva Pharmaceuticals' propofol anesthetic. The company has handed out pink slips to 70 workers in Orange County, California. The job cuts follow the company's announcement in late May that it was exiting the business.
Teva has been unable to get out from under propofol's dark cloud. Bacterial contamination led to a July 2009 recall, which in turn led to an FDA warning letter last December. And in May, Teva and Baxter were jointly fined $500 million in a Nevada case that involved re-use of single-use vials. Both companies are appealing.
Yet the company says that neither recall, warning, nor lawsuit is behind its exiting the business. Rather, the drug is hard to make and barely profitable, as reported.
-see the article