Pfizer has just announced a recall on over 190,000 bottles of their Lipitor drug. The recall has been initiated because there have been numerous reports that a musty odor had been coming from some of the bottles in which the drugs were placed in for distribution.

The recalled which took place actually in the middle of August included seven lots of the 40 milligram Lipitor pills, and also 3 lots of generic drugs. There were a total of three reports to the company that a musty odor had been coming from the bottles, and one person who made the claim had adverse effects. Pfizer does not believe that the adverse effects were related to the musty odor, however.

Pfizer has not released the name of the supplier who furnished the bottles, nor the plant in which they were packed in. Pfizer’s spokesman, Rick Chambers stated, “We’re working closely with the supplier to guarantee that we can meet our supply demand, including changing the way that the bottles are packaged at the bottle supplier, decreasing time to delivery, and relocating some bottle production to other facilities operated by the supplier’s”.

Lipitor, which is produced from the drug Atorvastatin, is a statin used to lower a patient’s blood cholesterol. Lipitor was the top selling branded pharmaceutical in the world last year with sales topping $12.4 billion.

Pfizer Incorporated, which is based in New York City, has a value of close to $140 billion. The company will lose patent protection on it’s Lipitor drug in June of next year. The company was founded way back in 1849 as a chemical company by Charles Pfizer.