Contaminated eye drops from Walmart, CVS and Target linked to factory in India where workers reportedly went barefoot and faked safety checks
By Nicole Lyn Pesce
The more than two dozen tainted eye drops that the FDA warned could cause infection and vision loss have been traced back to an unsanitary factory, according to a report
The tainted eye drops that the Food and Drug Administration recently warned people to stop using ASAP have reportedly been traced back to a factory in India.
The more than two dozen affected eye-drop brands sold by retailers like Walmart, CVS, Target and Rite Aid were made by Kilitch Healthcare India Ltd. in Navi Mumbai, India, according to a federal inspection report seen by Bloomberg News.
The report cites unsanitary conditions in the factory, such as workers being barefoot in the facility and falsifying test results so that the products made there appeared to be safe, according to the news site. The FDA has banned the Kilitch factory from shipping any more of its eye drops to the U.S. The FDA also asked the factory to recall its eye drops, but it has not done so yet.
Representatives from Kilitch were not immediately available for comment.
Last month, the FDA warned that more than two dozen over-the-counter eye drops sold by retailers including Walmart (WMT), CVS (CVS), Target (TGT) and Rite Aid (RADCQ) posed a risk of eye infections that could cause partial vision loss or blindness. It advised shoppers to stop buying these products, which were also sold under the Velocity Pharma brand and Cardinal Health Inc.'s (CAH) Rugby and Leader labels, and to quit using them immediately. Many of these retailers and pharmacies also pulled the products from their shelves.
Read more: CVS, Target and other eye-drop products pose risk of dangerous infections, FDA warns
If you're concerned about whether you have any of these infected products in your home, check out the complete list from the FDA.
See also: FDA's eye-drops recall: The full list of CVS, Walmart, Target and Rite Aid products that you should stop using ASAP
This news comes several months after U.S. health authorities also linked eye drops made by a different company in India to eye infections that were ultimately blamed for four deaths and 18 cases of vision loss in the United States.
-Nicole Lyn Pesce
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11-10-23 1055ET
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