WASHINGTON -- With news that more blood pressure medications are being taken off the market, Dr. Gigi El-Bayoumi’s practice has been fielding patients’ worried calls.
“People are extremely worried,” said El-Bayoumi, professor of medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Science.
“The calls that we’ve gotten are like, ‘OK please switch me to something else,” which is the best call to get because we don’t want anybody stopping their blood pressure medication and leaving their blood pressure untreated,” she said.
On Friday, Teva Pharmaceuticals announced it is voluntarily recalling 35 lots of Losartan Potassium USP tablets (six lots of 25 mg strength and 29 lots of 100 mg strength). The drug is used to treat people who have had heart attacks, high blood pressure, and/or diabetes.
Teva fears some of the drugs may have been contaminated by an impurity during the manufacturing process, which could lead to cancer.
“There has just been an incredible number of people as you can imagine in our practice, but also all across the country, that have been impacted—and actually worldwide,” she said.
The Food and Drug Administration maintains the risk of cancer is very low. According to the FDA, out of 8,000 people taking the contaminated drug for four years, only one would be diagnosed with cancer.
“It just gives you some perspective that, it’s not something that needs to be done today,” said El-Bayoumi.
El-Bayoumi went on to explain that it is safer for people taking the drug to finish taking it while they wait to switch to something else, rather than stop taking their pills altogether, with no substitute.
The Teva recall is one of two dozen popular blood pressure and heart medicines that have been pulled of the shelves since last summer.
El-Bayoumi says the recalls highlight the importance of the FDA’s role when it comes to quality control.
“I believe very strongly that FDA should actually do more oversight, certainly not less. So when I hear that there are potential cuts to the FDA I become concerned. FDA is crucial. It is part of our institutions that protect the public,” she said.
