GlaxoSmithKline team ignored test results, says watchdog

GlaxoSmithKline Ireland’s own quality control team ignored test results that could have indicated drug contamination at the Cork plant as far back as 2011, according to the US drugs watchdog.

Earlier this week, the company triggered a recall of one of its most popular anti-depressants, Seroxhat after the US Food and Drugs Agency found in October last year that the drug, which is manufactured in Cork, was contaminated by product from a waste tank.

In the letter to GlaxoSmithKline which prompted this week’s recall, the FDA also warned that GlaxoSmithKline’s inhouse quality tests in September and October 2011 had revealed “large peaks” of one contaminant and “small but detectable levels of at least 10 other contaminants” in their drugs.