Thread: FDA Shuts border because of 19 Heparin Deaths!

Blood thinner held at border for testing

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080314/ap_ ... rsgO8E1vAI

Can you believe this? The FDA has more control of the border than ICE does.....

It's terrible that 19 people lost their lives to this drug, but where is the proportionality? Proof that there is the ability, but not the political will to close the border.


By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer
Fri Mar 14, 6:02 PM ET
WASHINGTON - U.S. health officials have ordered all imports of the blood thinner heparin, and its raw ingredient, stopped at the border for testing to detect a contaminant linked to 19 deaths.

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The Food and Drug Administration announced the move Friday, the latest step in its widening investigation of hundreds of allergic-type reactions linked to Baxter International's heparin injections.

The FDA found the contaminant in 20 of 28 samples of raw heparin that the agency tested from Baxter's main supplier, a Chinese factory owned by Wisconsin-based Scientific Protein Laboratories.

A different brand of heparin also has been recalled in Germany after 80 patients there got sick, and the German manufacturer said Friday that it was narrowing down the source of contamination to another Chinese supplier.

FDA announced some good news Friday, saying it had learned of no additional deaths and just two more allergic reactions since Baxter recalled the last of the suspect heparin late last month.

Scientists don't yet know exactly what the contaminant is, except that it mimics heparin so closely that standard drug-purity tests won't catch it. Nor is it certain that the contaminant is to blame for the allergic reactions, although it is the prime suspect.

But the FDA is "very close" to identifying the substance, a step that should help tell if the contaminant got into heparin by accident or by fraud, said FDA drug chief Dr. Janet Woodcock.

Heparin is derived from pig intestines, and China is the world's leading supplier. Tiny family-run workshops near slaughterhouses send batches of raw ingredients to larger middlemen before they reach factories like SPL's in Changzhou. The FDA hasn't yet inspected those workshops, saying that was something under discussion with Chinese officials.

Two weeks ago, the FDA urged all remaining U.S. heparin manufacturers to start using more sophisticated tests to be sure their products were contaminant-free. Friday, the agency said worldwide testing had begun.

The added hurdle for imports "will improve our safety net," Woodcock said. "We will get a much better picture of whether there's any contaminant existing, and we can trace it back" to its source.

Most of the actual import testing will be done by five of the nation's leading heparin manufacturers, which will be cleared to sell their products once the FDA receives those test results.

The FDA itself will test any remaining shipments that arrive from abroad.

The FDA wouldn't name the five companies that will do their own testing, and acknowledged it has no plans to do spot checks of the quality of those companies' tests.

China strikes again! Communism always produces low quality products because there is no incentive to do it right, except fear and that can be overcome or loose it's power over time and be bribed away.

Dixie

True, but the point is the FEDS will close the border down to catch pills that killed 19, but not illegals who have killed tens of thousands and cost billions..where is the proportionality?

THAT IS THE POINT!!!!

Originally Posted by Dixie

China strikes again! Communism always produces low quality products because there is no incentive to do it right, except fear and that can be overcome or loose it's power over time and be bribed away.

Dixie

I'm not sure how they work Dix, They executed some CEO over there not to long ago for allowing some screw up that killed some people.

This is laughable! We screen legal immigrants for diseases, financial, educational and other things before approving or denying them visas. However; we're supposed to turn a blind eye to millions of the most unskilled and uneducated people in the world, many whom are disease-ridden, who sneak over our borders!

Diseases that had previously been eradicated are coming back and some are resistant to antibiotics. Diseases we've never even heard of are also coming in with these aliens. Why do we bother with health screening of LEGAL immigrants?

Our infrastructure was not built to handle the worlds poor, and if our goverment doesn't connect the collapse of our economy with the swarm of illegal aliens, they will be shocked come election time!