China Accuses US of Shoddy Probe Into Tainted Heparin

BEIJING -- China's drug safety agency accused the United States on Tuesday of blocking Beijing's inquiry into a blood thinner linked to 81 deaths by refusing to provide details on victims and specifics about production. Two Chinese experts who attended a conference on the drug, heparin, in suburban Washington, D.C., last month said the U.S. determined a contaminant was likely to blame without considering other possible factors. Besides the deaths, hundreds of patients have suffered severe allergic reactions to large doses of heparin, which is used in dialysis and other treatments. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it suspects the problems stem from a contaminant the agency discovered in supplies of raw heparin coming from China - a compound derived from animal cartilage that so closely mimics heparin that routine tests can't detect it.
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Posted by Editor at May 7, 2008 04:34 AM