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The Food and Drug Administration has published information on its website listing the antihypertensive drugs recalled for their combination with carcinogens. Here's what to watch for.
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Macleods Pharmaceuticals Limited on Monday recalled a batch of losartan, a medicine for hypertension, after discovering traces of a probable carcinogen.

The recalled 100 mg / 25 mg tablets of losartan and potassium / hydrochlorothiazide contained small amounts of N-nitrosodiethylamine, or NDEA, according to a company recall notice published on the website of the Food and Drug Administration. .

Physicians advise the concerned consumers to continue taking their medications until a pharmacist replaces them or offers them another treatment. Stopping the treatment of a recalled drug could cause more immediate damage than maintaining the drug.

The active ingredient was manufactured by Hetero Labs Limited in India, one of two overseas drug manufacturing plants linked to blood-based drug recalls since last July.

Ongoing reminders have prompted the US House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce to question the officials of the Food and Drug Administration this month on the safety of drugs manufactured abroad.

More than 15 recalls of versions of losartan, valsartan and irbesartan, drugs for the treatment of high blood pressure and heart, containing traces of NDEA or other probable carcinogen, the N-nitrosodimethylamine or NDMA. The recalled drugs are part of a broad class of medications called angiotensin II receptor blockers, or ARBs, which have the effect of relaxing the blood vessels.

More: Medicines Recall Against Hypertension: FDA Investigates Foreign Plants Producing Drugs Containing Carcinogenic Impurities

More: Do you have high blood pressure? It depends on which doctor you ask

More: FDA: Carcinogenic substances for high blood pressure have not been detected for four years, cancer risk is low

Last month, the FDA minimized the risk of cancer for anyone taking valsartan containing small amounts of NDMA. The FDA concluded that there would be an additional case of cancer above average for 8,000 people receiving the highest dose of valsartan for four years.

In September, the FDA issued an import alert to prevent products manufactured by Zhejiang Huahai Pharmaceutical in China to enter the United States.

FDA officials said on Monday that the agency was reviewing the letter from the committee and would be responding directly to congressional staff.

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a tweet last week that the FDA had recorded a "steady increase" in generic plant inspections abroad over the past four years. last years.

He added that the FDA had multiplied by five the number of warning letters sent to manufacturers of drugs for humans.

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