Firm hit with wrongful death lawsuit
Davie company PharmaTech closed doors amid three recalls
A Davie pharmaceutical manufacturer that vacated its facility amid three recalls by the Food and Drug Administration is under fire again.
PharmaTech LLC is the subject of two lawsuits in federal court, including one claiming an infant died after taking an oral liquid stool softener made by the company, and another FDA warning.
In a suit filed in a Pennsylvania federal court, Pittsburgh residents Lamont Singleton and Jocelyn Wilson said their daughter Alivia Singleton died before her first birthday from a bacterial infection contracted after being given a drug made by PharmaTech.
The drug, a docusate sodium branded and sold as “Diocto Liquid,” was contaminated with Burkholderia cepacia, a rare complex of bacteria, when it was administered while the child was hospitalized for chronic lung disease between January 2016 and her death that May, the suit said.
The bacteria can cause lifethreatening infections in people with lung disease and compromised immune systems and chronic lung infections such as cystic fibrosis, the FDA said in several advisories urging that PharmaTech products not be used.
In February 2016, the child was diagnosed with a pulmonarybased B. cepacia infection, the suit states. In July 2016, the FDA announced a voluntary recall of the drug after the Centers for Disease Control linked it to an infection outbreak seriously affecting 63 people and 45 suspected cases in 12 states. Another recall followed in August 2017 of all liquid products made by PharmaTech.
PharmaTech vacated its Davie facility in June after the FDA cited numerous quality control issues observed in inspections that began in March.
Besides PharmaTech, the suit names as defendants The Harvard Drug Group LLC, which distributed, labeled and sold the drug under the business name Rugby Laboratories.
In a report about the lawsuit earlier this month, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review quoted John Singleton as saying “you wouldn’t think a laxative would be the culprit.” He added, “The lack of not paying attention to details by these