The Food and Drug Administration stepped up its heparin alerts to hundreds of hospitals, medical societies and pharmaceutical organizations on Friday after learning that some medical facilities still had the contaminated blood thinner among their supplies....

"Please help FDA spread the word about recalls of injectable heparin products and heparin flush solutions that may be contaminated with oversulfated chondroitin sulfate (OSCS). Affected heparin products have been found in medical care facilities in [California] since the recall announcement," the notice read. "Although product recall instructions were widely distributed, they may not have been fully acted upon at all sites where heparin is used," it said.

A spokeswoman for the FDA said that California authorities had sent a letter out on May 2 about gaps in the recall response.

"They checked and found more than a handful of hospitals had not removed all contaminated heparin," said Karen Riley of the FDA. "We found it on crash carts, catheter labs, and even on one hospital pharmacist's shelf," she added. The additional alert should spur hospital surgery, cardiac and dialysis centers, which use a lot of heparin, to recheck for any contaminated heparin lots."

A subcommittee led by Michigan Democrat Bart Stupak has scheduled a hearing for Thursday with an agenda titled "Direct to Consumer Advertising: Marketing, Education or Deception?" Mr. Stupak says he wants to lay the groundwork for future legislation to tighten controls on drug marketing, including giving the Food and Drug Administration the right to force changes in TV drug ads before they are broadcast....

Committee members plan to question officials of Pfizer Inc. about ads for its cholesterol drug, Lipitor, which featured Robert Jarvik, the inventor of the artificial heart. Mr. Jarvik isn't a practicing doctor, but he "appears to be giving medical advice," according to the committee, which suggested that the ads are misleading. Pfizer and the joint venture between Merck and Schering-Plough have defended their ads as accurate.

"He appears to be giving medical advice"?

The Democrats think you are idiots.

Diversified healthcare products company Covidien Ltd. issued a voluntary recall of its prefilled syringes containing heparin because some might contain a contaminant. Mansfield-based Covidien said its supplier, Wisconsin-based Scientific Protein Laboratories, said two lots of Heparin Sodium USP active pharmaceutical ingredient it received might contain a heparin-like contaminant. Covidien said it is recalling the product as a precaution; no adverse events have been reported. Last week, Scientific Protein said an ingredient it provided contained oversulfated chondroitin sulfate, a chemical that does not occur naturally.

Contaminated heparin from a different manufacturer has been associated with 19 deaths and hundreds of allergic reactions....

Typical symptoms of the allergic reaction to heparin include low blood pressure, shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain.

The questions I have yet to see answered in a newspaper account (or anywhere for that matter):

Where and when did the 19 fatalities occur?

During what time frame did the "hundreds" of allergic reactions occur?

Are there possible long-term consequences from use of the adulterated heparin which patients have to be vigilant about?

Have all patients who received potentially contaminated heparin been informed?

Why are there still possibly-contaminated Heparin products on the market?

Either the 19 deaths and "hundreds" of allergic reaction numbers are inflated or conjecture, or this story has been terribly handled by MSM.

Pointers?  hugh@hughhewitt.com

Scientists who have examined batches of the contaminated heparin distributed by Baxter International in the United States said in interviews that they suspected that the heparin-like molecule was intentionally mixed into the drug.

“A child could tell you it’s counterfeiting,” said Dr. Jawed Fareed, a professor of pathology and pharmacology at Loyola University Chicago, who has been studying batches of heparin since the problems with the drug were discovered.

Dr. Fareed said he was conducting his own investigation because he was concerned that the quality problems with heparin were far more widespread than acknowledged.

“Of seven or eight batches I have, six are contaminated,” said Dr. Fareed. “And these were used by doctors at Loyola University Medical Center.”

One American chemist, who asked not to be identified because he had signed a confidentiality agreement, said he and the F.D.A. had looked at chondroitin sulfate, a substance derived from animal cartilage, as a possible contaminant because of its structural similarities with heparin. “It is something that is a little bit different,” said the chemist, “like a distant family relative you don’t recognize.”

He added, “Once we have the exact fingerprint, we will try to figure out how it got into the product.” ...

The F.D.A. has said it has the world’s top heparin chemists working on the contaminant at two F.D.A. laboratories, three American universities and several European academic institutions. There are more than a dozen scientists working to identify the contaminant, or contaminants, an F.D.A. spokeswoman said....

Baxter has recalled virtually all of its heparin products in the United States and since that recall there have been no new deaths, the F.D.A. said last week....

Dr. Fareed said it was too early to say whether the contaminant is causing the adverse reactions. A variety of reactions have been observed, including abdominal pain, hypotension, burning sensation, vomiting, diarrhea, rising temperature and anaphylaxis, he said, “but one cannot link all of these to one substance.”