Merck & Co.’s Januvia, a popular diabetes drug, was found to be contaminated with a potential carcinogen.
An impurity called a nitrosamine was found in some samples of the drug, which has the chemical name of sitagliptin, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday. The agency said it was permitting Merck to continue to sell drugs containing sitagliptin with higher-than-allowed levels of nitrosamine in order to avoid shortages.
Merck confirmed in an email that it “recently detected a nitrosamine identified as NTTP in some batches of our sitagliptin-containing medicines.” The company is working with health authorities around the world and has put in place additional quality controls to make sure the drugs meet the FDA’s interim limits.
