Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc. warned the Food and Drug Administration that its drug Cubicin was tainted with a potentially harmful industrial chemical, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports. Cubicin is used to treat skin and blood infections.

The potential harmful chemical, 2-mercaptobenzothiazole (MBT), is known to cause skin irritation, and in rodent lab testing, it is linked to an increased risk of tumors.

A spokeswoman for Cubist Pharmaceuticals said the company believes the contamination came from products made by Cardinal Health Inc. of Dublin, Ohio, that are used to administer the antibiotic. She added that the chemical was not found in test samples of Cubicin that were stored in pumps made by a different company.

Cardinal Health said it was “conducting our own investigation to figure out what the issue is, and we don’t know the results yet,” according to the WSJ.

Source: Joe Pereira, The Wall Street Journal, ?Cubist Finds Its Antibiotic Cubicin Is Tainted,? April 10, 2008.