Less than a month after a jury ordered Teva Pharmaceutical Industries to pay $360 million in a product liability/negligence case involving propofol, the drug giant said it will stop making the anesthetic. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704269204575270900368773506.html?KEYWORDS=Teva+and+propofol
In a statement to federal regulators last week, Teva announced it was stopping production of propofol, according to The Wall Street Journal.
It’s no wonder that Teva is dropping the drug, which has been under fire by federal officials and consumers alike.
Most recently, just earlier this month, Teva and Baxter Health Care Corp. lost a suit filed by a Nevada man who contracted hepatitis C after undergoing a routine colonoscopy where he was anesthesized with propofol.
In that case, a jury in Las Vegas awarded Henry Chanin and his wife half a billion dollars in punitive damages, the largest award in Nevada’s history. Teva was ordered to pay $356 million, while Baxter was hit for $144 million.
As many as 114 patients were infected with hepatitis C, when medical workers used single-dose vials of propofol on more than one patient, spreading the incurable disease to those undergoing colonoscopies. Chanin’s lawyer is representing 40 other patients who contracted hepatitis from the vials, and another 4,500 who were among 50,000 who got notices that they may have been exposed to hepatitis during their colonoscopies.
Teva has had other problems with propofol. The pharmaceutical company had to recell some of the anesthetic last July when high levels of toxins wre found at its Irvine, Calif., plant. The Food and Drug Administration in a letter in December told Teva that it had found “significant” violations at that plant, according to The Journal.
In its statement last week saying it was ending its manufacturing of propofol, Teva said, “Our data supports that these products, when used and stored as directed, continue to be safe and effective and perform within the appropriate specifications.”
Propofol and a combination of other drugs were blamed for causing the death of singer Michael Jackson, who used the anesthetic to help him sleep.
Propofol is widely used for surgeries across the country, and federal officials have been worried that there might be a shortage of the anesthetic. So Teva’s news has federal regulators worried, despite the past problems the drug maker and the FDA have had over the drug.
