Baxter Heparin Contaminant Found!
Thursday, March 6, 2008 at 11:30AM 
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced yesterday, 5th March, they had found evidence that the heparin blood thinning product made by Baxter that has been linked to several deaths and serious reactions in hundreds of patients contains a contaminant that is hard to detect using standard tests.
Speaking at a news conference, FDA Deputy Commissioner Dr Janet Woodcock is reported by the New York Times as saying:
"At this point, we do not know whether the introduction was accidental or whether it was deliberate."
Woodcock said the FDA had not yet established how the compound got into the active ingredient.
According to the FDA, 19 people have died in the last 14 months and 785 are reported to be gravely ill of severe allergic reactions after receiving injections of Baxter's heparin, but investigators have not yet established a direct link between these events and the contaminated heparin.
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