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Patients hospitalized with fractures typically receive an injectable blood thinner, low-molecular-weight heparin, to prevent life-threatening blood clots. A new clinical trial, however, found that inexpensive over-the-counter aspirin is just as effective. The randomized clinical trial is the largest trial ever conducted on orthopedic trauma patients. "Many patients with fractures will likely strongly prefer to take a daily aspirin over receiving injections after we found that both give them similar outcomes for prevention of the most serious outcomes from blood clots," said Robert V. O'Toole, MD. Blood clots cause as many as 100,000 deaths in the U.S. each year. Patients who...

The world is now engaged in a vaccination program unlike anything we have seen in our lifetimes, and with it, unprecedented scrutiny of ultra-rare but dangerous side effects. An estimated 852 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered across 154 countries, according to data collected by Bloomberg. ... ...Whether the blood issues are ultimately linked to only one vaccine, or two vaccines, or more, it’s absolutely crucial to remember the unrelenting death toll from the coronavirus itself—and the fact that COVID-19 can set off its own chaos in the circulatory system, with blood clots showing up in “almost every organ.”...

Once again, what’s going on with vascular events and the AZ/Oxford vaccine? I last wrote about this situation a couple of weeks ago, and it’s taken some real turns since then. At that point several EU countries had suspended dosing, but over the next week several began administering the vaccine again after the European Medicines Agency recommended it, in some cases with advisories about which age groups should be targeted. But there’s more to the story, it seems. Here’s an excellent writeup at Science (open access) by Kai Kupferschmidt and Gretchen Vogel. A possible concern is what’s being called vaccine-induced...

Researchers may have found an explanation for the rare but serious blood clots reported among some people who received AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine. They believe the phenomenon is similar to one that rarely occurs with a blood thinning drug called heparin, called heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT). In HIT, the drug triggers the immune system to produce antibodies that activate platelets, which cause blood to clot. Drugs other than heparin can cause clotting disorders that strongly resemble HIT, and researchers suspect that in rare cases, the AstraZeneca vaccine may be another such trigger. Four previously healthy individuals who got the AstraZeneca shot and...

A common drug, already approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), may also be a powerful tool in fighting COVID-19, according to research published this week in Antiviral Research. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, uses a surface spike protein to latch onto human cells and initiate infection. But heparin, a blood thinner also available in non-anticoagulant varieties, binds tightly with the surface spike protein, potentially blocking the infection from happening. This makes it a decoy, which might be introduced into the body using a nasal spray or nebulizer and run interference to lower the odds of infection. Similar...

A team of researchers has confirmed that a contaminant found in several batches of the blood-thinner heparin is linked with severe allergic reactions in patients, dozens of whom died after receiving the tainted drug. A study conducted by the researchers provides epidemiological evidence that contaminated batches of heparin produced in China sickened hundreds of people, said MIT Professor Ram Sasisekharan. Sasisekharan is the senior author of the study, which appears in the Dec. 3 online edition of the New England Journal of Medicine. The tainted heparin scandal is among several recent contamination incidents involving products from China. It unfolded between...

Top image depicts the chemical structure of chondroitin sulfate, the contaminant found in batches of heparin. Bottom image shows the chemical structure of normal heparin. Graphic courtesy / Ishan Capila, Momenta Pharmaceuticals Click here to enlarge image (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of researchers has confirmed that a contaminant found in several batches of the blood-thinner heparin is linked with severe allergic reactions in patients, dozens of whom died after receiving the tainted drug. A study conducted by the researchers provides epidemiological evidence that contaminated batches of heparin produced in China sickened hundreds of people, said MIT Professor Ram Sasisekharan....

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...

As health inspectors probe nearly 100 deaths tied to contaminated heparin, researchers develop safer version in the lab Blood thinners made from the complex carbohydrate heparin have been routinely used in the U.S. since the 1930s to keep veins, arteries and lungs clear of potentially fatal clots and to reduce the amount of time that kidney failure patients spend on dialysis machines. These drugs are so popular that there is not enough heparin—the active pharmaceutical ingredient (primarily derived from pig intestines) that enables these blood thinners to stop or prevent blood from clotting during medical procedures and treatments—to meet the...

Infant seriously ill before blood thinner error One newborn is dead after a Christus Spohn Hospital South pharmacy error that led to as many as 17 babies getting as much as 100 times the recommended dosage of the blood thinner heparin. It's still unclear what role, if any, the heparin played in the infant's death, because the child already was seriously ill and being cared for in the neonatal intensive care unit before dying Tuesday morning, said Dr. Richard Davis, chief medical officer for Christus Spohn Health System. Heparin routinely is used in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit to...

The chief of US drug maker Baxter International says that its Chinese-made blood thinner heparin, which has been linked to dozens of deaths, appears to have been deliberately contaminated."We are greatly concerned that our heparin products appears to be the target of a deliberate adulteration scheme," Baxter chief executive Robert Parkinson said in prepared remarks to a US Congress panel. ...Mr Parkinson said it was clear the contaminant, an altered form of chondroitin sulfate, was added before crude heparin material reached Baxter's supplier in China, Scientific Protein Laboratories LLC (SPL). SPL, in separate testimony, also said the contamination appeared to...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Robert Parkinson, the chairman and chief executive of Baxter International Inc told a Congressional committee Tuesday its blood thinner heparin appears to have been deliberately contaminated, according to media reports.

A contaminant found in tainted heparin, the blood-thinner drug that has been linked to dozens of deaths, can trigger severe adverse reactions all by itself, researchers report. In one study released today, researchers confirm the presence of the chemical, known as oversulphated chondroitin sulphate, in suspect batches of heparin1. Another study found that the compound seems to trigger in pigs the same symptoms that have been seen in patients treated with the contaminated drug2. Contaminated heparin produces similar adverse reactions in swine.ANTONIA REEVE / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY “We show that the contaminated heparin activates two inflammatory pathways, causing severe allergic...

April 24, 2008, 0:00 a.m. The High Cost of Cheaper DrugsThe heparin scare is a monitory lesson on drug importation. By Roger Bate Tainted heparin in 11 countries has caused the deaths of 81 patients, highlighting the potential danger of cheaply produced — sometimes counterfeit — imported medicines. Congress is holding multiple hearings on the tragedy, but it’s unlikely that they’ll draw the appropriate conclusion. All three presidential candidates support making drug importation easier to combat the “high cost of health care.” But they seldom acknowledge the inherent risk — and associated external costs — in such importation. According to...

An international team of researchers led by MIT has explained how contaminated batches of the blood-thinner heparin were able to slip past traditional safety screens and kill dozens of patients recently in the United States and Germany. The team, led by Professor Ram Sasisekharan of MIT, identified the chemical structure of the contaminant, known as oversulfated chondroitin sulfate (OSCS). The researchers present their findings and offer new approaches to detecting the contaminant in a report appearing April 23 in the online edition of Nature Biotechnology. Another team led by Sasisekharan has shown exactly how OSCS can kill-specifically by setting off...

WASHINGTON — A contaminated blood thinner from China has been found in drug supplies in 11 countries, and federal officials said Monday they had discovered a clear link between the contaminant and severe reactions now associated with 81 deaths in the United States. But a Chinese official disputed the assertion that the contaminant found in the drug, heparin, caused any deaths and insisted that his country’s inspectors be allowed to inspect the American plant where the finished heparin vials were made. He said any future agreement to allow American inspections of Chinese firms should be reciprocal. “We don’t have a...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials warned Baxter International Inc's supplier of the blood thinner heparin for failing to ensure that its manufacturing process can remove impurities, according to a letter released on Monday.

When cold medicine containing a poison made in China killed nearly 120 Panamanians in 2006 and early 2007, Americans could take some comfort in the belief that a similar epidemic could never happen here, not with one of the best drug regulatory systems in the world. Then last spring, hundreds if not thousands of pets died or were sickened in the United States by a Chinese pet food ingredient that contained lethal levels of melamine, an industrial product used to artificially boost protein levels. That was followed quickly by the discovery that Americans were brushing their teeth with Chinese toothpaste...

(CHANGZHOU, China) -- On a dusty lane in east China, a small factory sitting amid strawberry and vegetable fields processes chemicals from pig guts into heparin, a commonly used blood thinner linked to 62 deaths and hundreds of allergic reactions in the U.S. and Germany. The mysterious problems with heparin from the factory and others like it ? China's deadliest product quality scandal since Chinese cough syrup killed 93 people in Central America a year ago ? dramatically illustrate the perils of shifting drug production offshore. With recalls of heparin products now in six countries, it is an issue that...

(WASHINGTON) -- Expanding the scope of its Heparin recall, the government is sending letters to 82 medical device makers today warning them to withdraw any stents, catheters and other products that might contain the contaminated blood thinner. The move came as the Food and Drug Administration tripled the number of deaths that it said could be linked to the tainted drug. After reviewing more than 1,200 reports of allergic reactions from users, the agency said that 62 deaths since January 2007 may now be related to contaminated Heparin, up from the 19 deaths it previously counted during that period. In...