Disappeared News

The FDA today recalled 11 million bottles (!) of acetaminophen manufactured by Perrigo Company and possibly sold by Longs Hawaii, Safeway and perhaps other local stores. The medicine may be contaminated with small pieces of metal.

Check your supply--you may be trading one kind of headache for another if you don't.

The FDA notice is on the web here.

The list of stores affected (from the above notice) is here.

The list of batch numbers is here.

This recall should be of interest to Disappeared News readers because Perrigo is a "serial offender" whose products have been recalled over and over again. And like the criminals who are released back to the streets by a lax enforcement system, they continue doing business and stores such as Longs and Safeway continue buying from them.

According to an alert by Public Citizen today,

This is the 33rd recall of Perrigo's products since the beginning of 1998; 16 of those were issued in the past two years alone.

.  .  .

Why hasn't the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the public's first and strongest line of defense against unsafe medications, been more vigilant in preventing the substandard manufacturing processes that lead to many of these recalls? Why, even in the face of 33 recalls, does the FDA lack the authority to fine drug companies for such problems? To adequately protect the public, Congress should pass emergency legislation to give the FDA the authority to enforce safety regulations.

The FDA is currently headed by a Bush family friend, Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach. His predecessor, Lester Crawford, ran into trouble when he indefinitely postponed nonprescription sales of the emergency-contraception pill Plan B over objections of FDA scientists leading the agency's chief of women's health to resign in protest and beginning a public outcry. Later Crawford, whose own appointment faced a difficult confirmation process, resigned abruptly. In the face of opposition, Eschbach has not yet come up for confirmation.

Eschbach has been described "the drug industry's hand puppet."

As long as this president continues to make appointments, consumers are likely to lose out to drug industry greed. What to do? If you feel so motivated, let Longs and Safeway know that they should purchase their generics from a different manufacturer. And that they should let their customers know that they have done so.