Heparin Comes Clean

Hypotensive episodes in patients receiving heparin by means of injection, some of which cause death, are voluntarily reported to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Many cases occur in medical situations associated with hypotension, such as hemodialysis or pulmonary embolus. Such reports of hypotensive episodes and, unfortunately, of associated deaths increased dramatically from November 2007 through February 2008.1 Close cooperation among the FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pharmaceutical companies, and physicians led to the tracing of the problematic preparations of heparin to the Scientific Protein Laboratories' manufacturing operation in Changzhou, China. Consequently, by March 2008, exposures of . . .