Contaminant Discovered in Chinese Heparin May Have Killed 100 Hospital Patients in the US and Germany

[TXCharlie]

http://www.star-telegram.com/466/story/537013.html


Posted on Wed, Mar. 19, 2008

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Contaminant found in heparin

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
AP Science Writer


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• FDA

WASHINGTON -- U.S. health officials have identified a contaminant in batches of the blood thinner heparin associated with 19 deaths and are trying to determine how the chemical got into the drug.

The lots of heparin, whose key ingredient was imported from China, were recalled Feb. 28, and Food and Drug Administration officials said Wednesday that no new deaths have been reported since that time.

Dr. Janet Woodcock, head of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said the contaminant is oversulfated condroitin sulfate, a chemical that does not occur naturally.
Condroitin sulfate is a natural compound that occurs widely and is used as a dietary supplement but the oversulfated version has not been widely studied.

"We cannot rule in or out whether this was accidentally or deliberately introduced into the product," Woodcock said, "We are investigating how it got in."

The FDA has also initiated testing of imported heparin entering this country and Woodcock said the agency feels "doctors and patients now can be confident that the product on the market has been tested and is safe."

Condroitin sulfate is a compound in the same family as heparin, so preliminary testing did not identify it, Woodcock said. She said more exacting tests by the government and university researchers uncovered the contaminant.

Oversulfated condroitin sulfate would be less expensive to make than heparin, but FDA officials said they could not estimate the cost difference.

The lots of heparin linked to hundreds of allergic reactions were marketed by Baxter International and produced in China.
FDA said Chinese officials have been highly cooperative in the investigation.

The investigation comes just a year after melamine was identified as a contaminate in pet food from China. Officials said an agreement signed at that time with China helped smooth the way for this investigation.

FDA officials said they could not yet directly associate the oversulfated condroitin sulfate to the deaths and side effects, but it is the lone contaminant they have found in the product.

A different brand of heparin has also been recalled in Germany after 80 patients there became sick, and the German manufacturer said it was narrowing down the source of contamination to another Chinese supplier

On Wednesday, German regulators did not say if the contaminant they are investigating is oversulfated condroitin sulfate.

Heparin is derived from pig intestines, and China is the world's leading supplier. Tiny family-run workshops near slaughterhouses send batches of raw ingredients to larger middlemen before they reach factories.

[213th]

We need to stop importing stuff. I'm willing to pay a bit more for US grown and better quality items. Especially when it comes to items that effect health. Why in the bloody hell are we importing medicine???? Anyone else have a problem with that? I can live with (lead free) toys, but medicine???

[Xiphos]

Hard to believe from our "Most Favored Nation" in trading.

We need to get away from China. They need to go down like the USSR.

[Bob Loblaw]

Dr. Janet Woodcock

ha ha!

[TXPO710]

Call me a conspiracy nut, but:
1. Lead in our toys from china
2. Lead in dental products from china
3. Now this???
coincidence?? I'm not convinced. The evil empire is still alive.

[TXCharlie]

Not a conspiracy-nut yarn at all - With our gullible FDA and USDA, they could sneak in some slow-acting poison or sterilizing agents and have this place to themselves in a couple of decades.

Hell, a simple TRADE EMBARGO would send us to our knees - no computers, no spare parts, no toys, no TV's, no video games - The USA would implode.

What's to stop them? - Much safer to the Chinese homeland than a shooting war.

[TXPO710]

I knew there was something I liked about you. Not just cause your a Texan.

[Ender]

Call me a conspiracy nut, but:
1. Lead in our toys from china
2. Lead in dental products from china
3. Now this???
coincidence?? I'm not convinced. The evil empire is still alive.

Thats the funny part. What IF the CIA or some other alphabet soup agency is on the back end of all of these issues, to gradually turn us into hate mongers when it comes to everything Chinese?

[gozling]

Not a conspiracy-nut yarn at all - With our gullible FDA and USDA, they could sneak in some slow-acting poison or sterilizing agents and have this place to themselves in a couple of decades.

Hell, a simple TRADE EMBARGO would send us to our knees - no computers, no spare parts, no toys, no TV's, no video games - The USA would implode.

What's to stop them? - Much safer to the Chinese homeland than a shooting war.

yeah oh my god... we may actually have to interact as families and play board games and have dinner with the neighbors and garden and and and....

[Ender]

yeah oh my god... we may actually have to interact as families and play board games and have dinner with the neighbors and garden and and and....

Perish the thought!

[gozling]

sometimes i wish all our technology would just bite the dust

lol

[LawnMM]

sometimes i wish all our technology would just bite the dust

lol

Can we keep Guitar Hero?

[213th]

Can we keep Guitar Hero?

that game kinda looks lame

[gozling]

Can we keep Guitar Hero?

no
i will buy you a real guitar and you can learn to play it

[MacLean]

Hell, a simple TRADE EMBARGO would send us to our knees - no computers, no spare parts, no toys, no TV's, no video games - The USA would implode.

If the Chinese attempted a trade embargo, it would not be the USA that would implode.

Their economy would collapse so fast they would not be able to buy oil, which would result in our prices dropping like a rock.

Anything they make, we can make.

[Ender]

that game kinda looks lame

It is fun when you're drunk and want to rock out with your cock out, hang out with your wang out, or jam out with your clam out.

Otherwise, it is mildly entertaining for about 10 minutes or one trip through 'Freebird.'

[TXCharlie]

If the Chinese attempted a trade embargo, it would not be the USA that would implode.

Their economy would collapse so fast they would not be able to buy oil, which would result in our prices dropping like a rock.

Anything they make, we can make.

We can make it, but not overnight. Their huge factory capacity was built up over a 30-year period, financed by the whole world,. Ours was torn down in the same time,

I'm not too sure that China's leadership cares whether or not their economy implodes, because it's counterproductive to communism. Proving that free enterprise is a failure would be a lesson that some of the Maoists would go to great lengths to accomplish.

[Xiphos]

We can make it, but not overnight. Their huge factory capacity was built up over a 30-year period, financed by the whole world,. Ours was torn down in the same time,

I'm not too sure that China's leadership cares whether or not their economy implodes, because it's counterproductive to communism. Proving that free enterprise is a failure would be a lesson that some of the Maoists would go to great lengths to accomplish.

It might be contrary to communism but it isn't contrary to greed. The Chinese elites live the same wealth lifestyle ours do. Funded by their economy.

We can build our industrial base back up. We can do whatever they are doing, and we can do it better. Can we do it cheaper? Not without the economic slavery they have. Can we do it better? Sure can.