Blood pressure medicine recalled over impurity

Pharmaceutical company finds possible cancer-causing agent

A pharmaceutical company in Zhejiang province has reported finding an impurity that can cause cancer in a drug it makes as an ingredient for blood pressure medications, the State Drug Administration said on Sunday. The products have been recalled.

Huahai Pharmaceutical, in Linhai, reported on July 6 that it had discovered traces of a chemical impurity called NDMA in valsartan, the active ingredient in drugs widely used to treat hypertension, the administration said. Valasartan normally contains no such contaminant.