Pfizer to resupply Levoxyl after recall

Pfizer will begin to resume shipping a thyroid-disorder drug after a recall that has disrupted supply for much of the past 12 months.

A manufacturing-quality lapse prompted the recall of Levoxyl, but in an open letter to doctors, the company said it expects the medicine to be back in US retail pharmacies by the first week in March.

Eligible patients will be offered a 30-day free trial of Levoxyl, in a bid to win back market share.

Levoxyl has been used to treat hypothyroidism, which is a deficiency in the body's production of certain hormones, and has also been employed as a preventative measure for goiter.

Production had to be halted in February 2013 after Pfizer received complaints about plastic-like odors in the product, which the company later attributed to an oxygen-absorbing canister that had been used to boost product stability.

Pfizer acquired Levoxyl as part of its $3.6 billion (£2.16 billion) purchase of King Pharmaceuticals in 2011.