Nitrosamine scare spreads to diabetes drugs in the USA

The US Food and Drug Administration has issued an update on its investigation into the presence of genotoxic impurities, called nitrosamines, in certain types of drugs.

In September 2019, global regulators including the FDA revealed that some ranitidine-based medicines, including the brand-name drug Zantac, contained the impurity N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) at low levels.

The FDA now says it has learned certain metformin diabetes medicines produced outside of the USA have been reported to have low levels of NDMA, and it has expanded its investigation to include these products.