Heparin

According to an April 21 AP article, the FDA issued a warning Monday to Changzhou SPL, the company that manufactures the blood-thinning drug Heparin. The FDA informed the pharmaceutical manufacturing company that it is not doing an adequate job of removing impurities from the raw materials it uses. However, the company maintains that it does employ safe manufacturing practices.

In recent months, the FDA has recorded 62 deaths from allergic reactions to Heparin.

The AP article states that “the FDA can’t say for sure what caused the reactions, but the chief suspect is a contaminant that the agency discovered in supplies of raw heparin coming from China — a compound derived from animal cartilage that so closely mimics heparin that routine purity tests can’t detect it.”

I’ve known several people who have taken Heparin in the last year, and it is definitely disturbing to think about what little control we have over the drugs we put in our body. We generally know very little about where they come from, what ingredients they contain and how they are made. And while the FDA does the best job it can to regulate, it seems that ultimately, it is impossible to keep track of so many drugs, ingredients and manufacturing companies.