EU Says 2nd China Co. Made Tainted Heart Drug

[To-Whose-Benefit?]

Reuters Staff Aug 10/2018

[excerpt]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pharmaceuticals-europe-tianyu/eu-says-second-china-company-made-tainted-heart-drug-idUSKBN1KV1SG

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Friday that a second Chinese contract manufacturer, Zhejiang Tianyu, had produced a common blood pressure and heart drug with an impurity that could cause cancer.

The alarm over the valsartan drug was first raised in July, prompting a global recall of affected pills. The EMA initially said the problem likely dated back to changes in manufacturing processes at Zhejiang Huahai Pharmaceutical in 2012.

But N-nitrosodimethylamine, a probable human carcinogen, was also found in batches of valsartan made by Zhejiang Tianyu, although at much lower levels than in the case of Zhejiang Huahai, the EMA said in a statement.