The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is alerting health care providers of concerns about a lack of sterility assurance of all sterile drug products made and distributed by NuVision Pharmacy of Dallas, Texas. The FDA recommends that these products should not be administered to patients.

The U.S. Department of Justice, on behalf of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is seeking a preliminary injunction in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York against New York City Fish, Inc., and several key employees for manufacturing and distributing ready-to-eat fish products under insanitary conditions causing them to become adulterated.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved a new use for Simponi (golimumab) injection to treat adults with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Xofigo (radium Ra 223 dichloride) to treat men with symptomatic late-stage (metastatic) castration-resistant prostate cancer that has spread to bones but not to other organs. It is intended for men whose cancer has spread after receiving medical or surgical therapy to lower testosterone.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved the cobas EGFR Mutation Test, a companion diagnostic for the cancer drug Tarceva (erlotinib). This is the first FDA-approved companion diagnostic that detects epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene mutations, which are present in approximately 10 percent of non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC).

On May 10, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Nymalize, a new nimodipine oral solution, to treat patients experiencing symptoms resulting from ruptured blood vessels in the brain (subarachnoid hemorrhage). Nimodipine previously was available only as a liquid-filled gel capsule.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has released a new tool to help bolster the food industry’s defense measures against an act of intentional food contamination. The Food Defense Plan Builder is a comprehensive, easy-to-use software program designed to help owners and operators of food facilities—ranging from primary production and manufacturing to retail and transportation—develop customized plans to minimize the risk of intentional contamination at their individual food facilities.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers not to consume any juice products or other beverages from Juices Incorporated (aka Juices International and Juices Enterprises) of Brooklyn, N.Y. The company's carrot and beet juice products have the potential to be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum, a bacterium which can cause botulism, a serious and potentially fatal foodborne illness. Consumers are warned not to consume these products even if they do not look or smell spoiled.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Breo Ellipta (fluticasone furoate and vilanterol inhalation powder) for the long-term, once-daily, maintenance treatment of airflow obstruction in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), including chronic bronchitis and/or emphysema. It is also approved to reduce exacerbations of COPD in patients with a history of exacerbations.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is alerting health care providers, hospital supply managers, and pharmacists that the FDA’s preliminary findings of practices at The Compounding Shop of St. Petersburg, Fla., raise concerns about a lack of sterility assurance for sterile drugs produced at and distributed from this site. Therefore, these products should not be administered to patients. If a drug product marketed as sterile has microbial contamination, it potentially places patients at risk of serious infection.

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a proposed order that, if finalized, would reclassify sunlamp products and require labeling to include a recommendation designed to warn young people not to use these devices.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is alerting health care providers and patients that medications including and related to valproate sodium can cause decreased IQ scores in children whose mothers took the medication during pregnancy. Therefore, these drugs are being contraindicated for (should never be used by) pregnant women for the prevention of migraine headaches. Valproate products include valproate sodium (Depacon), divalproex sodium (Depakote, Depakote CP, and Depakote ER), valproic acid (Depakene and Stavzor), and their generics.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced that it has approved an amended application submitted by Teva Women’s Health, Inc. to market Plan B One-Step (active ingredient levonorgestrel) for use without a prescription by women 15 years of age and older.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Procysbi (cysteamine bitartrate) for the management of nephropathic cystinosis in children and adults. Procysbi was granted orphan product designation because it is intended to treat a rare disease or condition.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Kcentra (Prothrombin Complex Concentrate, Human) for the urgent reversal of vitamin K antagonist (VKA) anticoagulation in adults with acute major bleeding. Plasma is the only other product approved for this use in the United States.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced a public-private partnership to help identify counterfeit or substandard anti-malarial medicines, including falsified products, with the deployment of the FDA-developed Counterfeit Detection Device, called CD-3.

Balanced Solutions Compounding Pharmacy (Balanced Solutions), a division of Axium Healthcare Pharmacy, Inc., of Lake Mary, Fla., is voluntarily recalling all lots of its sterile non-expired drug products due to a lack of sterility assurance and concerns with product quality controls.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved updated labeling for Purdue Pharma L.P.’s reformulated OxyContin (oxycodone hydrochloride controlled-release) tablets. The new labeling indicates that the product has physical and chemical properties that are expected to make abuse via injection difficult and to reduce abuse via the intranasal route (snorting).

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is alerting health care providers, hospital supply managers, and pharmacists that sterile drug products made by ApotheCure, Inc. and sterile lyophilized (freeze dried powder) drug products made by NuVision Pharmacy were produced under conditions that could create a high potential for contamination. These products should not be administered to patients.

U.S. Marshals have seized food products at a Ridgewood, N.Y. warehouse that manufactures and distributes kosher food products, after investigators from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found widespread rodent infestation in the facility.