Why has Heparin been recalled recently?
In early 2008, a doctor in St. Louis found that severe adverse reactions in two children were caused by contaminated Heparin. He sent a report to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) explaining his findings, which was then inundated with hundreds of other reports of suspected contaminated Heparin. The makers of half the countrys Heparin, Baxter Health Corporation, agreed to pull their product and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) then began investigating. Heparins raw ingredient, pig intestines, is produced at a plant in China. It was found that the contamination started there. At first, it was though China has used diseased pigs; however, the FDA found that the Heparin had been adulterated with oversulfated chondroitin sulfate, which closely mimics the ingredients found in Heparin. It was then reported that neither the FDA nor the Chinese had inspected the plant before the ingredients were shipped to Baxter in 2004. Other lots of Heparin manufactured by other companies were also
