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Do remember to check the medication your elderly at home are consuming. They are the most vulnerable groups. HSA recalls 3 brands of high blood pressure drugs over potentially harmful impurity SINGAPORE: Three brands of high blood pressure medicine containing the ingredient losartan have been recalled because they contain higher than acceptable levels of a potentially harmful impurity, the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) said on Thursday (Mar 28). The drugs contain the active ingredient losartan potassium, which was manufactured by Indian pharmaceutical company Hetero Labs. The affected products are the 50mg and 100mg tablets from the brands Losartas, Losagen and Hyperten and distributed by local suppliers Apotheca Marketing, Medicell Pharmaceutical and Goldplus Universal, respectively. About 137,000 patients in Singapore are using the three recalled brands of losartan medicine, said the Ministry of Health (MOH). Losartas is prescribed in public healthcare institutions, while Losartas, Losagen and Hyperten are prescribed at private healthcare institutions. HSA has advised patients not to stop treatment on their own as there is no immediate health risk and sudden stopping of the drugs can pose greater immediate risk to their health. The recalled products were found to contain trace amounts of a nitrosamine impurity, N-nitro-N-methyl-4-aminobutyric acid (NMBA), which are above internationally accepted levels, HSA said. Exposure to nitrosamines at high quantities over a long-term period may potentially increase the risk of cancer. For example, the added cancer risk from an additional six-month exposure is estimated to be less than 0.0002 per cent. “The risks of trace amounts of NMBA are associated with long term exposure. Sudden stopping of the medicines can pose greater and more immediate risk to patient’s health … We have advised healthcare professionals to review the medicine and treatment plans of their patients,” HSA said. HSA said that several losartan medicines have been recalled overseas since end-February due to the presence of NMBA. It tested all locally marketed losartan products for the presence of the NMBA impurity and in March found the three brands contained trace amounts of NMBA above acceptable levels. The other seven brands of losartan medicines marketed in Singapore are NOT affected by this impurity.