A Yonkers pharmaceutical company implicated in the distribution of allegedly tainted eye drops that may have injured more than 50 people and killed one user has petitioned for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Aru Pharma Inc. cites the death of its founder and several lawsuits accusing it of distributing contaminated drops, in a petition filed Feb. 27 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, White Plains, as rendering it unable to conduct business.
Aru Pharma was founded in 2013 by Arumugam Jayakumar, of Yonkers.
He had owned pharmacies, his widow, Rajammal Jayakumar states in an affidavit, and it was his lifelong dream to manufacturer his own products.
After her husband died last year, she became acting president and her daughter, Lalithapriya Jayakumar, became vice president.
“She and I agreed that [Aru Pharma] could not continue operations after my husband’s passing,” Rajammal says. They decided to liquidate company assets and distribute the proceeds to creditors.
Meanwhile, from last May through this past January, 58 people in 13 states were infected by bacteria in eye drops. One person died and five lost their vision, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC has not pinpointed where or how the eye drops were contaminated. Infected people reported using a variety of brands, but most of them said they had used EzriCare Artificial Tears.
The eye drops were manufactured in India by Global Pharma Healthcare, and repackaged and distributed by Aru Pharma and EzriCare.
In early February, Aru Pharma announced that it was voluntarily participating in a U.S. Food and Drug Administration product recall.
In the bankruptcy case, Rajammal Jayakumar traces the problem to an incident in 2018.
Aru Pharma had built a “clean room” for manufacturing pharmaceutical products in a facility near the Fleetwood train station in Mount Vernon, to satisfy strict FDA purity standards. Then in 2018, the roof collapsed and dust and contaminants destroyed the equipment.
To make ends meet, Rajammal says, Aru Pharma turned to distributing pharmaceutical products from India, including the eye drops branded by EzriCare.
Her husband’s dream was delayed by the roof collapse, she says. And but for the damages, Aru Pharma “would never have been in the distribution business and would not have unknowingly distributed a harmful product to the public.”
“And in this case, a dream delayed was a dream denied, as Arumugam Jayakumar passed away on Aug. 24, 2022.”
Aru Pharma declared $109,092 in assets and $1,409,828 in liabilities. It is seeking $2 million from its landlord and a contractor for alleged damages caused by the roof collapse. It is a co-defendant in five lawsuits filed against EzriCare.
