China finds contaminant in blood-thinner products

A contaminant has been found in a blood-thinner produced at US firm Baxter International’s joint venture plant in China, Reuters reported. The discovery confirms suspicions that problems with heparin – a drug used in kidney dialysis, which Baxter recalled in the US last month after it was linked to up to 19 deaths and hundreds of serious reactions – stem from a tainted manufacturing process in China. China’s State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) said it was investigating whether the "over-sulfated chondroitin sulfate" was added to the drug accidentally or on purpose. However, the SFDA was quoted by state media as saying that the plant was "one link in a long production chain of heparin." A statement released by Baxter claimed that contamination occurred before the chemical components reached the plant.