As Many As Two Million People Exposed To Blood-Pressure Drugs Containing Probable Carcinogens
The FDA assesses the risk to individual patients as being small, though.
The Washington Post:
FDA Identifies Contamination Source In Blood Pressure Medicines Used By Millions
Federal regulators say they’ve identified the source of the cancer-causing impurities that have tainted millions of bottles of commonly used generic blood pressure and heart failure medications recalled by drugmakers over the last seven months. The carcinogens are a chemical byproduct of the process used to synthesize the active ingredient in the drugs, which include valsartan, losartan and irbesartan. People who take those drugs may have been exposed to trace amounts of impurities for at least four years, after a switch in how companies manufactured the active ingredient, according to the Food and Drug Administration. (Johnson, 1/25)
The Wall Street Journal:
FDA Says Up To Two Million People Exposed To Likely Carcinogens In Blood-Pressure Drugs
Half or more of the patients taking the common hypertension medicines are in the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration officials said. The drugs are certain lots of some manufacturers’ products, including generic drugs going by the names valsartan, irbesartan and losartan. Not all generic products are affected, nor are the brand-name versions of the medicines, called Diovan, Avapro and Cozaar. The FDA’s website contains details about which lots and companies are affected. The number of generic-drug versions that contain the class of chemicals, called nitrosamines, has been increasing since the issue first surfaced last summer. (Burton, 1/25)
