Massive recall of acetaminophen underway
(AP)Updated: 2006-11-10 09:20
CVS will stop selling its own brand of 500-milligram acetaminophen caplets and pull bottles from store shelves nationwide, spokesman Mike DeAngelis said. SuperValu also began removing the pills from its Albertsons, Cub Foods and other stores, spokeswoman Haley Meyer said. Messages left Thursday with the other chains were not immediately returned.
Perrigo, based in Allegan, Mich., said the pills contained raw material purchased from a third-party supplier and affected 383 batches. Messages left Thursday with two company spokesmen were not immediately returned.
The FDA declined to identify the source of the raw materials. The agency does not suspect the contamination was deliberate, said Dr. Douglas Throckmorton, deputy director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.
Molly Walsh, 21, a George Washington University student shopping at a CVS pharmacy in Washington, said she did not plan to toss any of the store-brand drugs at home. Nor did she plan to stop buying the generic products.
"It's still going to be cheaper and I'm still going to be broke after the recall," Walsh said.
The voluntary recall is considered a Class II recall since it covers products that might cause a temporary health problem or pose only a slight threat of a serious nature.
Consumers with questions can call Perrigo toll free at 877-546-0454.
The FDA did not know in which states the pills had been sold, but recommended that customers determine whether products they bought are being recalled by checking the store list on the FDA Web site, http://www.fda.gov/oc/po/firmrecalls/perrigo/perrigocustlist.html and the batch list, http://www.fda.gov/oc/po/firmrecalls/perrigo/perrigobatchlist.html
The batch numbers appear on the container's label.
It wasn't immediately clear where Perrigo made the pills. Its main factories are in the United States and Israel, with secondary plants in the United Kingdom, Mexico, Germany and China.
Perrigo has carried out at least 32 other product recalls since 1993, according to FDA records. As recently as May, it recalled nearly 59,000 bottles of a 500-milligram combination pain-reliever and sleep aid that contains acetaminophen because of contamination with acrylic mirror particles.
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