Heparin Contaminant May Have Been Added to Boost Profits: FDA

-US News & World Report

04/16/2008 -  Batches of Baxter International Inc.'s blood thinner heparin may have been intentionally contaminated to increase profit, U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach suggested at a Senate hearing Tuesday.

"It was apparently, we suspect, done by virtue of economic fraud," he told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees FDA spending, Bloomberg news reported. However, after the hearing, von Eschenbach said his comments may have gone too far and noted that the FDA has no evidence the contamination was deliberate.

Since January 2007, 62 people have died due to allergic reactions or low blood pressure after receiving Baxter's heparin. Some samples of the company's heparin -- in which the main ingredient is made from pig intestines and imported from China -- were contaminated with a cheaper substance derived from animal cartilage.

The FDA hasn't pinpointed where in the supply chain the contaminant was added, but Baxter has said it appears to have occurred before the product reached the company's supplier.

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