Lipitor Recall 2010 – 191,000 Bottles Recalled – Over 190,000 bottles of Lipitor have been recalled after some users of the product found that a musty scent emitted from inside the bottle. Lipitor is used to reduce blood cholesterol and is also used to stabilize levels of plaque in the body in effort to prevent strokes from inflammatory mechanisms.Lipitor sales reached $12.4 billion in 2008, making it the highest selling medication across the globe.
The musty smell complaints started being relayed to the company in July of this year. Although the recall started in August, the company did not make their efforts public until now. It appears that the smell is only found in batches of bottles that were manufactured at the same time. They were not manufactured by Pfizer, but by a third party who was hired by Pfizer. The name of the manufacturer has not been revealed at this time.
The company released a statement saying that they were working with the manufacturer to determine what might have caused the strange smell. At this time, it does not appear that any adverse health effects have been reported from users of the drug with the affected bottles. Each of the bottles contains 90 Lipitor tablets that are usually 40 MG in size. Five of the lots were sold in the United States. Canada also received two lots of the affected bottles.
Pfizer claims that it has only received three complaints about the smell. One individual reported that they had adverse side effects from the tainted bottles, but nothing serious has been reported thus far.