Cubist Pharmaceuticals voluntarily recalls Cubicin lots in the USA

American biopharmaceutical company Cubist Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: CBST) has issued a voluntary recall of certain lots of its infection-fighting drug Cubicin (daptomycin injection) to the user level due to the presence of glass particulate matter in vials produced by a contract manufacturer.

The presence of such matter when in an intravenous drug poses a potential safety risk such as thromboembolism, phlebitis or mechanical block of the capillaries or arterioles, with patients who have a pre-existing condition of trauma that affects the microvascular blood supply at increased risk. Glass particulates can also lead to formation of granulomas, which represent a protective local inflammatory response to the foreign matter.