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Posted on 11/08/2008 2:26:33 AM PST by nickcarraway
Federal drug regulators have seized batches of the tainted blood thinner heparin from a Cincinnati manufacturer that used a Chinese-made ingredient linked to 81 U.S. deaths earlier this year.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday that it took 11 lots of heparin from Celsus Laboratories that was contaminated with over-sulfated chondroitin sulfate (OSCS), a chemical used only to make fake blood thinner. The ingredient mimics heparin's anti-clotting properties but can cause severe allergic reactions and dangerously low blood pressure, according to reports the agency received beginning in January.
No patients were harmed by the tainted Celsus products, which were to be used in medical devices, not as injections, FDA spokeswoman Karen Riley said today.
Celsus informed its customers that the products were contaminated after they were shipped between January and April, but didn’t tell buyers to destroy or recall them if they'd already been embedded in the companies' devices, Riley said. The tainted heparin was sold to universities, research, chemical and research-supply facilities in the U.S, Japan, Canada, Australia and Europe. "This was a contaminated product, and we don’t think that [Celsus] did enough," Riley said. "We decided to seize the remainder and destroy it."
Facilities that may have bought heparin from Celsus should contact the company to make sure they're not using products from the seized lots, the FDA says. A receptionist who answered the phone at Celsus this morning said the company had no comment.
The FDA has issued 13 recalls of tainted heparin products so far this year. Scientists are racing to develop safer, synthetic versions of the anticoagulant to reduce American dependence on China for the drug, which is traditionally made from a complex carbohydrate derived from pigs’ intestines.
Riley declined to give a number for consumers or businesses to call about the heparin seizure, saying Celsus had notified its customers about the tainted product.
More chit from China.
We just have to stop buying stuff from the Chinese. I’d like to see them start suffering financially for the tainted products, the trade deficits, and forcing down our plane 7 years ago.
Don’t hold your breath. Now that Comrade 0bama and his politburo are taking over, we’ll be cozier than ever with the ChiComs.
Wal-Mart will be stocking those red flags with yellow stars from floor to ceiling.
If a flood of Americans cross the border to buy cheap drugs, Canadians will find their drug stores empty before the end of the year. Not only will they be pee'd off, but so will the Canadian government for Obama's arrogance thinking the Canadian government is going to subsidize Americans. I think we will see the Canadian government stopping this at the border, or enacting some sort of measure to prevent Canadian and mail order drug stores from selling to non-citizens, and one of the first of many smack downs of Obama's "health care reform"(by sending Americans to raid other countries subsidized health care)ideas'
But you will be able to buy bigger bottles of that Chinese medicine from Cost -co
Your observations are astute. And the Canadian government can immediately prevent such American raids on their pharmaceuticals by simply requiring that Canadians receiving prescription medicines must present their Social Insurance Number and/or MSI (medical services) card.
If Americans don’t have a health care card, they wouldn’t be able to purchase prescription drugs in Canada, and under such a regimen, Canadian pharmaceutical merchants would be unable to sell either in person, or online.
iow, “ZZZZZZT” wrong answer for Comrade 0bama.
“This was a contaminated product, and we don’t think that [Celsus] did enough,” Riley said. “We decided to seize the remainder and destroy it.”
How about seizing the management of the company and destroying them? It might make an impression on the rest of the crooks out there.
Ping.
This list is for alerting people to health hazards posed by foods or medicines which pose a current concern and require immediate notification.
This is the kind of thing that this list was started for.
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