Heparin Highlighted in Serious Drug-Reaction Report
According to a report released by the nonprofit Institute for Safe Medication Practices, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration received a record number of adverse drug-reaction reports in the first quarter of 2008.
The FDA received almost 21,000 serious adverse reactions in the first three months of 2008, including 4,800 deaths.
Chantix, Pfizer’s anti-smoking drug, and the blood thinner heparin were the two drugs that accounted for highest number of serious problems.
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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