Amphastar Pharmaceuticals (IMS) is discontinuing 23 products due to the FDA requirement of filing a new drug application or abbreviated new drug application for these “grandfathered drugs,” effective December 31, 2009. The reason for discontinuing these products are not due to safety or efficacy therefore, products that are already in the distribution chain are safe and can continue to be used. Please see the Generic Updates attachment for specifics on the products and pricing. (Acute, Non-Acute, LTC, Managed Care, and Retail).
Hospira has not yet received any notification from the FDA to discontinue any of their emergency syringe product lines at this time. They have been proactively working with the FDA to bring their products into compliance and do not anticipate it will result in a product shortage. Amphastar currently represents approximately 30 percent of the emergency syringe market, so it will take Hospira several weeks to be able to fully supply Amphastar’s current customer base long-term.
We want to thank all the posters here on our Pharmacy Buyer Forum, who kept everyone apprised of this situation.
PPO requested an official statement regarding the Emergency Syringe situation with Amphastar. Their response and the complete list of products to be discontinued effective December 31, 2009 is on the Subscriber-Only Resources page of our website, (www.PharmacyPurchasing.com), in a new section for “Breaking News on Recalls & Discontinued Products (from PPO).”