AmerisourceBergen takeover target Pharmedium pulls drugs made with Hospira saline

US compounder Pharmedium has recalled sterile drugs made with contaminated saline supplied by Pfizer's Hospira unit.

The recall – detailed in a weekly US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) enforcement report – covers 514 bags of the decongestant phenylephrine, 100 bags of the pain med morphine sulphate and 20 bags of the anaesthetic bupivacaine.

The sodium chloride was supplied by Hospira, which was recently acquired by Pfizer for $15bn.

Hospira has recalled sodium chloride several times in the past few years.

In March 2013, the firm recalled one lot of the diluent after a customer found “brass particulates” containing copper, zinc and lead inside the product bags.

In January this year, Hospira asked customers to send back one lot of the product after an unnamed drug company it supplied reported that it was contaminated with particulate matter.

Another lot was pulled in March because a customer found a human hair in the product.

The latest recall follows just days after AmerisourceBergen announced its intention to buy Pharmedium $2.56bn (€2.2bn).

Sodium chloride - which is commonly used as a diluent in hospitals - has been listed as being in short supply for over a year.  

Other saline solution suppliers – B Braun Medical, Baxter Healthcare and Fresenius Kabi – have all struggled to cope with increasing demand.