U.S., Europe and Australia Team Up to Inspect Chinese Factories
More than a hundred people have died as a result of receiving heparin contaminated in Chinese factories. Now, the U.S., Europe and Australia have agreed to coordinate the inspections of drug-making factories in China and India, the Associated Press reports.
The pilot program was announced on July 9. It is hoped that the effort will allow regulators to inspect more factories.
Inspections are urgently needed. There have been at least 149 deaths in the U.S. of people who had allergic reactions after receiving contaminated doses of the blood thinner heparin. So far, ten countries have reported the presence of contaminated heparin. They include: Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United States.
Heparin, derived from pig intestines, is typically injected into patients to reduce the risk of blood clots in catheters or during kidney dialysis and cardiac surgery.
Baxter International, one of the largest producers of heparin in the U.S., announced the voluntary recall of nine lots of heparin on Jan. 17, 2008, after reports of allergic-type reactions in patients given the drug. A month later, the FDA released a statement indicating that some patients who received heparin injections suffered symptoms, sometimes fatal, ranging from nausea and diarrhea to shortness of breath, dangerously low blood pressure and allergic or hypersensitivity reaction.
Investigators with the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control subsequently announced that the drug had been contaminated with a chemically altered form of chondroitin sulfate at Chinese manufacturing facilities hired by Baxter.
If you have a loved one who has been injured or died after receiving heparin, contact Carey & Danis. We can help. Carey & Danis is a national law firm that represents personal injury victims and their families.
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