Eye Drop Recall: 27 Meds Thousands Took, Pulled From the Market

What has led to the spate of lubricating drop contaminations this year?

The recent alerts of eye drop recall may be a result of several factors.

First, the unknown strain of antibiotic-resistant bacteria found in EzriCare eye drops in February began cropping up across the country. Federal investigators were prompted to take action, and they employed an innovative genomic fingerprinting approach to connect instances associated with contaminated eye drop use.

Second, over 50% of the medications consumed in the US are produced abroad, but at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, the FDA considerably curtailed its ongoing inspections of international manufacturing facilities. While the reduction in oversight was temporary, it may have enabled product contamination to go unchecked.

Finally, until recently, infections from contaminated lubricated drops were rare. Given the serious sterility issues it discovered in the manufacturing process during its initial inspections, the FDA was forced to do further investigation and found yet more problems, which may have led to another eye drop recall after another.