Product category · Updated Aug 19, 2026

Drugs & Medications recalls

Name: Drugs & Medications Recalls
Creator: PlainRecalls
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

Prescription and over-the-counter medication recalls

Total recalls: 14,473
Top agency: FDA Drug
Years covered: 2004–2026

Compiled from official public sources by the publisher. · Updated September 2026

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Drugs & Medications ranks #3 of 12 among PlainRecalls categories by recall count (14,473 notices, 13.9% of the archive); 10% of graded records are high-severity.

The FDA, CPSC, USDA FSIS and NHTSA have published 14,473 drugs & medications recalls between 2004 and 2026 - roughly 13.9% of the 104,423-record archive. Among 12 product categories, that is #3 of 12. Of the 14,473 records graded for severity, 10% are high-severity. Most are issued by FDA Drug. Counts reflect market size and reporting activity, not a product's inherent danger.

14,473 total recalls
#3 of 12 among categories
10% graded high-severity
FDA Drug top agency

Category snapshot

According to PlainRecalls' category ranking (distinct recall events, same sort as /category), Drugs & Medications is #3 of 12 (3rd of 12) with 14,473 recalls, about 13.9% of the 104,423-record federal archive, with 1,508 graded high-severity, most issued by FDA Drug.

14,473
total recalls: #3 of 12
category rank by events: 10%
graded high-severity: FDA Drug
top issuing agency

Where Drugs & Medications sits among all 12 categories

Distinct recall-event inventory across every PlainRecalls product category. Drugs & Medications is marked; archive size reflects reporting volume, not inherent product danger.

Drugs & Medications vs all categories by recall count

Where this category's archive sits among every tracked product class

14,473 3rd of 12 higher than 9 of 12 categories

Categories, banded by distinct recall-event inventory

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more categories. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source FDA · CPSC · USDA FSIS · NHTSA federal recall filings · 2026-09-23

Do more recalls mean more Class I danger?

Drugs & Medications sits at the 71st percentile of category volume (14,473 recalls) and the 29th percentile of Class I rate (10.5% of agency-classified notices) among 7 categories with enough classified rows to measure, those two ranks are not interchangeable.

Each point is a product category plotted by total recalls (x) and Class I share of agency-classified notices (y). Crosshairs mark the within-sample medians (4,017 recalls · 15.7% Class I). Rate uses only rows with an agency Class I/II/III label, CPSC/NHTSA blanks stay out of the denominator. Medical Devices is the clearest volume-without-Class-I-density example in this release. Source: FDA, CPSC, USDA FSIS & NHTSA public recall data as of 2026-09-23.

Read the chart, every category as text

Percentiles are within this release's classified-enough category sample. Class I % uses only agency-classified notices.

Category	Recalls	Vol %ile	Classified	Class I	Class I %	Rate %ile
Medical Devices	41,070	100	40,763	3,653	9%	14
Food	25,513	86	25,222	11,676	46.3%	86
Drugs & Medications	14,473	71	14,417	1,508	10.5%	29
Children & Baby Products	4,017	57	2,483	352	14.2%	43
Dietary Supplements	2,018	43	1,993	466	23.4%	71
Meat & Poultry	1,672	29	1,672	1,145	68.5%	100
Cosmetics & Personal Care	1,388	14	1,289	203	15.7%	57

High severity

1,508
Moderate

11,608
Lower severity

1,357

FDA Drug

14,105
FDA Food

312
CPSC

56

Counts reflect market size and reporting activity, not inherent danger, we do not rank products by risk from raw recall volume.