Teva Pharmaceutical Industries just issued a recall of one lot of its generic Parkinson’s disease combination medication, carbidopa/levodopa, over it potentially containing too much of an active pharmaceutical ingredient.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries indicated that the recall, which has been deemed a Class II, involved 3,881 bottles of carbidopa/levodopa 25 mg/100 mg, according to FiercePharmaManufacturing. Teva also indicated that stability testing revealed that the recalled carbidopa/levodopa may be what the drug maker described as “super potent.” The voluntary recall is for the entire United States.
According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the lot number involved is 29C220 and the expiry date is 11/15.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, which is based in Israel, has experienced numerous and significant recalls in 2014. For example, in June 2014, the drug maker announced a recall of nearly 130,000 cartons of Tev-Tropin human growth hormone for children over concerns that oil leaked into the medication, according to FiercePharmaManufacturing. Prior to that, in April, Teva issued another recall of more than 1 million bottles of its then-released generic version of Eli Lilly’s antidepressant, Cymbalta.
Now, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries is conducting massive restructuring and seeks to cut some $2 billion in costs, FiercePharmaManufacturing reported. The generic drug maker’s manufacturing network is being significantly slashed to meet these goals. Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Eyal Desheh told analysts that Teva intends to close about 50 percent of its 75 plants in the next 4-5 years. The closures are being conducted as Teva builds new facilities in other markets, including Russia.
