Following seven serious injuries and one reported death, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a Class I recall, the most serious type of recall, of some of Ethicon’s Flex Endopath surgical staplers because they may contain an out of specification component within the jaw of the device that could lead to malformed staples. Ethicon, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson (J&J), said that earlier this month it sent a letter to customers who purchased the affected...

Following Takeda Pharmaceuticals’ recall of its hypoparathyroidism drug Natpara (parathyroid hormone) early last month, people who need the drug to stay alive are struggling to find it and ending up in the hospital. Vermont Democrat Senators Bernie Sanders, Patrick Leahy and Rep. Peter Welch sent a letter to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Acting Commissioner Ned Sharpless on Friday seeking more information on how long the recall might last, what short- and lo...

Last month, Edwards Lifesciences recalled its SAPIEN 3 Ultra Delivery System after reports of burst balloons during implantation, resulting in significant difficulty retrieving the valve into the catheter and withdrawing the system from the patient, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Thursday. FDA said 17 injuries and one death were reported at the time when Edwards initiated the Field Corrective Action early last month. “The use of affected product may caus...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently announced a Class I recall of more than 700 Edwards Lifesciences’ IntraClude Intra-Aortic Occlusion Devices after receiving 22 complaints related to balloon rupture or puncture, including three deaths. The device is used in patients undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass — a technique described by FDA as when “a machine temporarily takes over the function of the heart and lungs during surgery. When the IntraClude balloon is ...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday announced that Indian drugmaker Hetero Labs is recalling 87 lots of losartan tablets distributed by Camber Pharmaceuticals after testing found the drugs contained a potentially carcinogenic impurity, N-Nitroso-N-methyl-4 aminobutyric acid (NMBA).   The recall is the latest in a series of recalls tied to the discovery of nitrosamine impurities in angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB) drugs in the last year.   Previ...

Medtronic and Monteris Medical are suggesting procedural techniques to reduce unintended thermal damage linked to their magnetic resonance-guided laser interstitial thermal therapy devices, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Thursday.   The agency summarized the new information from both medical device manufacturers and provided updated recommendations in two letters to health care providers. Medtronic issued three advisory letters between June and August t...

A US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) safety communication was escalated to a Class I recall for Alcon’s CyPass micro-stent systems over risk of eye damage in implanted patients.   FDA’s safety communication was issued last month based on a preliminary review of five-year post-surgery data from the COMPASS-XT study conducted by Alcon, the eye care division of Novartis. A second FDA safety alert involving the CyPass device was issued Wednesday in conjunction w...

Each year, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) designates anywhere from dozen to hundreds of medical device recalls as Class I, indicating that the risk addressed by the recall could potentially cause serious injury or death. But it can be difficult to quantify the number of device recalls in a year, given the multiple data sources from FDA, including a listing of annual Class I and other significant recalls , a device recalls database and a data dashboard . B...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday warned patients and health care professionals not to use liquid drugs made by Florida-based contract manufacturing organization (CMO) PharmaTech LLC due to possible bacterial contamination. Last week, Rugby Laboratories issued a voluntary nationwide recall of all lots of two liquid docusate sodium laxatives, Diocto Liquid and Diocto Syrup, made by PharmaTech due to possible Burkholderia cepacia contamination. Wh...

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) on Thursday introduced a new bill that will allow the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to do what many assume it already can: Require pharmaceutical or over-the-counter drug companies to stop marketing unsafe products. The Recall Unsafe Drugs Act would give FDA mandatory recall authority over drugs and homeopathic products. The agency confirmed to Focus that it does not have that authority. The loophole is problematic in that some compani...

The US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) on Tuesday began posting medical device recall information in a searchable database much earlier than the agency ever has before. The information is now posted in CDRH’s Medical Device Recalls Database at the time a firm takes a correction (which addresses a problem with a device in the place where it is used or sold) or removal action (ie., Removing the device from the market...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday said it is maintaining its recommendation against the use of Custom Ultrasonics' System 83 Plus automated endoscope reprocessors (AERs) to clean duodenoscopes after finding the reprocessors were not adequately validated last November. However, in a shift from FDA's previous recommendation in February, the agency now says healthcare facilities can resume using the devices to clean other types of flexible endoscopes. ...