FDA seizes unsanitary drugs from General Therapeutics

The Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Marshals Service seized more than $300,000 of supplements and drugs stored at St. Louis manufacturer General Therapeutics after U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway filed a civil forfeiture suit and obtained a warrant to arrest and seize the unsanitary drugs and nutritional supplements, Hanaway said Thursday.

The government's forfeiture complaint, which was unsealed late Wednesday, alleges that the FDA previously found serious violations at General Therapeutics in 1999, and warned the company that its failure to correct the violations could result in serious consequences, including product seizure. Following FDA's warning in 1999, a company official told the FDA it would stop manufacturing drugs.

However, the government's forfeiture complaint alleges that in August and September of 2007, FDA inspectors found that General Therapeutics was manufacturing drugs and dietary supplements under filthy and unsanitary conditions, with insects and rodent filth on and around manufacturing equipment.

Under the law, any claimant to those drugs and foods must now file a claim in federal court. In its complaint, the U.S. is seeking to dispose of and destroy the drugs and foods it seized Thursday.