AEMPS Orders Removal From Spanish Market Of Injectable Drug Used To Treat Cats

AEMPS, the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products has ordered the removal from the Spanish market of an injectable veterinary drug used to treat cats.

In a statement, the AEMPS reported that on June 12, it received information regarding an unexpected increase in the notification of adverse events with this product in Poland, Great Britain and Ireland.

Specifically, the veterinary drug in question was Versifel FeLV – an injectable suspension used in the treatment of cats – with the registration number 2636 ESP.

In addition to communicating this information to the AEMPS, the marketing authorisation holder for the aforementioned medicine in all European countries requested the withdrawal from the market of recent batches that had been dispatched.

They reportedly all came from the same bulk of this semi-finished product, including lot 665277, which was released in Spain.

AEMPS issued an alert ordering the drug’s removal

Consequently, the AEMPS informed that, on June 15, 2023, it decreed the pharmacovigilance alert for veterinary drugs VFCV/1/2023, addressed to Zoetis Spain SL, as responsible for marketing the said product.

Likewise, in its alert, the Agency ordered the withdrawal from the market, by Zoetis Spain SL and at its own expense, of all units of lot 665277 of the medicine sold in Spain.

Finally, the AEMPS issued this note in order to inform the autonomous communities of this circumstance instructing them to proceed accordingly, supervising the withdrawal of the drug.

AEMPS warned about the shortage of a popular cancer treatment

In its position monitoring the public’s well-being in Spain, the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products regularly warns about medical issues.

One of these recently related to Nydrea, a drug used in the treatment of cancer patients. There is said to be a shortage of the product commercialised in Spain by Laboratorios Rubió.

Patients had reported encountering shortages of the drug that is used to treat polycythemia vera (a type of blood cancer) and essential thrombocythemia. It is also prescribed for certain types of chronic myeloid leukaemia and head and neck cancers.