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FDA Announces What's Contaminating Heparin

abcnews.go.com

Investigators believe they have discovered what's contaminating the blood-thinning medication heparin and are trying to determine whether it was put in the drug intentionally, the Food and Drug Administration announced today.

An altered version of a dietary supplement made from animal cartilage is now at the center of the worldwide drug safety investigation.

FDA officials said the man-made chemical compound known as over-sulfated chondroitin sulfate is cheap and abundant. It mimics heparin when tested, but is not naturally occurring and not something that would be part of the normal production chain for heparin.

Heparin's raw ingredients come from pig intestines, but today, Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said the contaminant "didn't come straight from the pig."

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