'Please pay attention': Scientist flagged heart-pill toxins early on

  • 📰 STForeignDesk
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 68 sec. here
  • 3 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 31%
  • Publisher: 71%

Singapore Headlines News

Singapore Latest News,Singapore Headlines

HANGZHOU - A scientist at a China-based company that makes crucial ingredients for generic drugs warned a year before the start of a global recall that some blood-pressure pills could become tainted

with potentially cancer-causing chemicals, according to court documents.

When Novartis AG detected NDMA in valsartan ingredients it bought from Huahai during routine testing in June 2018, the potential for the drug to become contaminated during manufacturing wasn't well-known. The Swiss drugmaker developed the brand-name version of valsartan, marketed as Diovan, and its Sandoz unit sells a generic.

Plaintiffs' lawyers in the US have seized on the message, which was addressed to Dr Lin's supervisor and other company managers, as evidence that Huahai could have acted earlier to protect consumers. "This email involves complex scientific issues that will be addressed by scientific experts in the valsartan litigation," Ms Brown said in a statement."This email was written in Chinese and highlights the difficulties associated with translating from the original language and culture."

Seven Huahai managers who were addressees on Dr Lin's email had been asked to produce documents related to the recall, but it was only included in records from Min Li, Dr Lin's boss, according to Slater. At the hearing in September, Slater said that Huahai never meant to reveal the email, but it slipped through because Dr Li transferred files to a new laptop in June 2018, causing the message to be re-dated to a time period after Novartis informed Huahai of the contamination.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 4. in SG

Singapore Latest News, Singapore Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.