Report: Pfizer recalls Embeda

NEW YORK — Pfizer is recalling a painkiller drug it acquired when it bought King Pharmaceuticals due to problems with a chemical used to deter drug abuse, according to a published report.

Reuters reported that Pfizer had recalled supplies of Embeda (morphine sulfate and naltrexone hydrochloride) because the chemical that prevents the drug from being ground up or dissolved by drug abusers — naltrexone — had deteriorated in samples of the drug that Pfizer had tested.

The drug has sales of less than $70 million per year, according to Reuters.