FDA Detects ‘Contaminant’ In Drug Supplied by China
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration has detected a “contaminant” in many samples of Chinese-supplied heparin that may be the cause of hundreds of severe and sometimes deadly allergic reactions to the blood-thinning drug, agency officials said yesterday. Chief Medical Officer Janet Woodcock said the agency is investigating whether the presence of the contaminant, a large molecule similar to heparin, was the result of faulty manufacturing or was intentionally added to reduce costs. “We don’t know how this heparin-like compound got into the heparin, but we are aggressively investigating it,” Ms. Woodcock said.
