FDA places all alcohol-based hand sanitizers from Mexico on “import alert”

5 min readJan 27, 2021

The latest on the coronavirus pandemic and vaccines
By Zahid Mahmood, Jessie Yeung, Adam Renton and Hannah Strange, CNN

Updated 11:53 a.m. ET, January 27, 2021

What you need to know
A team of WHO investigators is in Wuhan, China to begin a long-delayed investigation into the origins of the pandemic after clearing quarantine.
More than 100 million people worldwide have been infected by Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins University.
AstraZeneca’s CEO has defended plans to supply its vaccine to the UK ahead of the EU, amid frustration over delays.

FDA places all alcohol-based hand sanitizers from Mexico on “import alert”
From CNN’s Andrea Diaz

The US Food and Drug Administration has placed all alcohol-based hand sanitizers coming from Mexico on a nationwide “import alert” until the agency is able to review the products’ safety.

“Over the course of the ongoing pandemic, the agency has seen a sharp increase in hand sanitizer products from Mexico that were labeled to contain ethanol (also known as ethyl alcohol) but tested positive for methanol contamination,” the FDA said in a news release on Tuesday.
According to the FDA, methanol, or wood alcohol, is a substance that can be toxic when absorbed through the skin and can be life-threatening if ingested. This substance is not an acceptable ingredient in hand sanitizer or other any drugs in the United States.

“Consumer use of hand sanitizers has increased significantly during the coronavirus pandemic, especially when soap and water are not accessible, and the availability of poor-quality products with dangerous and unacceptable ingredients will not be tolerated,” said Judy McMeekin, FDA Associate Commissioner for Regulatory Affairs.

From April through December 2020, the FDA found that 84% of the samples that were analyzed were not in compliance with the FDA’s regulations.

More than half of the samples were found to contain toxic ingredients, including methanol and/or 1-propanol, at dangerous levels.

This is the first time the FDA has implemented a countrywide import alert for any drug product. Under this import alert, alcohol-based hand sanitizers from Mexico will be subject to heightened scrutiny, and the FDA may detain the shipments.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga apologized on Tuesday for the government’s failure to provide sufficient medical care under the strain of the coronavirus pandemic.

“As the person in charge, I feel terribly sorry,” Suga said at a parliament committee session. “We have not been able to provide the necessary care, and I recognize that because the Japanese people are feeling anxious.”
Eleven prefectures in Japan are now under a state of emergency. As of Sunday, at least 18,111 people are either waiting for a hospital bed or a spot at an isolation facility after testing positive for coronavirus.

Police have also reported an increased rate of people who have died at home from Covid-19 in January and December, according to public broadcaster NHK. Since March 2020, there have been 197 deaths recorded at home, NHK reported, citing the National Police Agency.

Covid figures: Japan reported 3,851 new coronavirus cases and 94 additional deaths on Tuesday. The national totals now stand at 372,498 cases and 5,297 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

AstraZeneca’s chief executive Pascal Soriot has defended the pharmaceutical giant’s decision to prioritize vaccine deliveries to the United Kingdom, after the European Union voiced growing frustration over delivery delays.

“The UK agreement was reached in June, three months before the European one. As you could imagine, the UK government said the supply coming out of the UK supply chain would go to the UK first,” Soriot told Italian newspaper la Repubblica on Tuesday.
“The contract with the UK was signed first and the UK, of course, said ‘you supply us first,’ and this is fair enough. This vaccine was developed with the UK government, Oxford and with us as well,” he added.
Earlier on Monday, EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides expressed dissatisfaction on talks with AstraZeneca, saying that the drugmaker “intends to supply considerably fewer doses in the coming weeks than agreed and announced” due to production problems.

Speaking to la Repubblica, Soriot conceded that the company had to reduce supply to the EU as a result of reduced yields early in the manufacturing process at one site in Europe.

“It’s complicated, especially in the early phase where you have to really kind of sort out all sorts of issues. We believe we’ve sorted out those issues, but we are basically two months behind where we wanted to be,” Soriot said.

He added that they also faced “teething issues” with the UK supply chain — but they had a “head start” since they signed the contract earlier, and had more time to “fix all the glitches.”

European delays: So far, the EU has ordered 300 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine — which could be approved for use by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) as soon as this week — with an option to purchase an additional 100 million doses.

With production issues centered around AstraZeneca’s European plants, Soriot said the company could soon be able to begin using its UK site to help Europe once the UK has “reached a sufficient number of vaccinations.”

“We’re moving very quickly, the supply in the UK is very rapid. The government is vaccinating 2.5 million people a week, about 500,000 a day, our vaccine supply is growing quickly,” he told the Italian newspaper. “As soon as we can, we’ll help the EU,” he added.

FDA places all alcohol-based hand sanitizers from Mexico on “import alert”

Written by Ysara Osman F

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