Drug Recalls More than Double Since 2008

New York, NYA 50 percent increase in drug recalls in the past year is raising fears over the quality of drug manufacturing in the US.

According to a report on CNN Money, the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported more than 1,742 recalls in 2009, compared to 426 in 2009, a massive jump by any standard. One company, Advantage Dose, was involved in more than 1000 of the recalls, and has subsequently shut down. Furthermore, 165 recalls in 2009 were of products made, or believed to be made, abroad, which is a 58 percent increase from 2008.

"We've seen a trend where the last four years are among the top five for the most number of drug recalls since we began tallying recalls in 1988," Bowman Cox, managing editor of the Gold Sheet told CNN. "That's a meaningful development."

Among the high profile drug recalls are Tylenol and several other products by McNeil Consumer Healthcare, although an FDA official said that there was no increase in recall "incidents" in 2009, or recalls involving only one product or company.

Among the reasons influencing the increase is the rush to get generic versions of drugs to market. Generic drugs account for nearly three quarters of all prescription drugs sales, CNNreports. "The first applicant typically gets the lion's share of the business for the new drug," said Cox.