1982 Chicago Tylenol murders: Tylenol pain-relief capsules were laced with potassium cyanide, leading to seven deaths.
2007 Panamanian Eduardo Arias discovered that toothpaste sold in his country was labeled as containing diethylene glycol, the same ingredient that had tainted cough syrup and killed 138 Panamanians in 2006. Panamanian officials discovered that the toothpaste had come from China and initiated a global response. Also in May 2007, the same toothpaste was found in some Costa Rican stores. Fast action by the Ministry of Health, and notification through the media, prevented poisonings due to this product. This event was linked to the death sentence of a former pharmaceuticals control officer in China, as the Costa Rican newspaper La Nación reported on its issue of May 30. On June 4, 2007, a press release by the Chinese Foreign Ministry cited an earlier study in China which concluded that up to 15.6% diethylene glycol in toothpaste is safe. In June 2007, counterfeit Colgate toothpaste imported from China was found to be contaminated with DEG, and several people in the eastern US reported experiencing headaches and pain after using the product. The same occurred in Spain with a false Colgate toothpaste, which contained 6% DEG. The tainted products could be identified by the claim to be manufactured in South Africa by Colgate-Palmolive South Africa LTD; they were 5 oz/100 ml tubes and their packaging contained numerous misspellings on the labels. Colgate-Palmolive claimed it does not import products from South Africa into the United States or Canada and that DEG is never and was never used in any of its products anywhere in the world. These counterfeit products were found in smaller mom and pop stores, dollar stores, and discount stores in at least four states. In July 2007, diethylene glycol was found in counterfeit Sensodyne toothpaste, on sale at a car boot sale in Derbyshire, England.
2017: medical cannabis in California found to contain dangerous bacteria and fungi, causing at least one fatality.
2012-2018: From 2012-2018 massive amounts of generic versions of an entire class of angiotensin II inhibitor blood pressure medications were made with contaminated ingredients. Patients receiving these drugs were exposed to genotoxic and carcinogenic N-nitrosodimethylamine and N-nitrosodiethylamine from 2012 until the drugs were recalled from the world drug market in 2018. The problem began in 2012, when the process for making tetrazole, a chemical intermediate in the production of various angiotensin II inhibitor medications for hypertension was changed by generic drug manufacturers in favor of several cheaper and more efficient processes. These changes caused drugs made with tetrazole to be contaminated with N-nitrosodimethylamine and N-nitrosodiethylamine, which cause genetic damage and cancer. This contamination was not detected until 2018. The incident, according to medicinal chemist and pharmaceutical industry blogger Dr. Derek Lowe, points to a greater problem. Generic drug manufacturers often change the way in which prescription drug ingredients are made in order to lower costs of making them, so this kind of contamination may be more widespread and undetected in generic drugs.
