The latest drug company to issue a recall of losartan is Teva Pharmaceuticals, which on April 29 announced it was recalling 35 lots of the popular blood pressure medication.
The past month has seen mass voluntary recalls of losartan potassium tablets from Legacy Pharmaceutical Packaging, Torrent Pharmaceuticals Limited and Camber Pharmaceuticals, all of which recalled the drugs due to detection of trace amounts of N-methylnitrosobutric acid (NMBA) and N-nitrosodiethylamine (NDEA)—both probable human carcinogens.
According to a statement from Teva, the company is recalling 35 lots of bulk losartan potassium tablets (6 lots of 25 mg strength and 29 lots of 100 mg strength) because developers found NMBA in six lots of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufactured by Hetero Labs Limited in India. Legacy and Torrent, too, cited Hetero Labs as their source of API for tainted batches of losartan.
Teva’s losartan was reportedly distributed exclusively to Golden State Medical Supply, a health company based in Camarillo, Calif., that’s been notified of impurities in its product. Golden State Medical Supply packages losartan in bulk under its own label, distributing the drug in retail bottles of 30, 90 and 1,000 tablets.
Last week, around the same time Legacy recalled another lot of losartan, a lawyer told Bloomberg the numerous recalls of angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) like losartan, valsartan and irbesartan will likely result in more than 2,000 lawsuits over the next couple of years.
For more coverage of recent ARB recalls, see below:
FDA recalls valsartan drugs tainted with carcinogen
FDA continues to expand recall for valsartan-containing products
‘Reassuring’ news: Tainted valsartan didn’t increase short-term cancer risk
2nd carcinogen detected in common heart drug valsartan
Mylan expands valsartan recall to all unexpired lots in US
Companies raised prices for valsartan following recalls
Another antihypertensive drug recalled over possible cancer risk
3rd blood pressure drug recalled due to cancer concerns
87 lots of losartan recalled as FDA investigation reveals more impurities in BP drugs
Torrent Pharma recalls an additional 104 lots of losartan
More losartan recalled; attorney projects at least 2K lawsuits will follow
After graduating from Indiana University-Bloomington with a bachelor’s in journalism, Anicka joined TriMed’s Chicago team in 2017 covering cardiology. Close to her heart is long-form journalism, Pilot G-2 pens, dark chocolate and her dog Harper Lee.