Contaminated Heparin Linked to Injuries and Deaths

At least 81 deaths involving the blood thinner heparin have been reported since the beginning of 2008. The attorneys at Carey & Danis are looking into claims that the pharmaceutical company Baxter International sold a defective and unreasonably dangerous product that injured and killed patients who were injected with it.

Heparin, derived from pig intestines, is typically injected into patients to reduce the risk of blood clots in catheters or during kidney dialysis and cardiac surgery.

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, more than a million multiple-dose vials of heparin are sold each month in this country. Baxter International, one of the largest producers of heparin, sells approximately 35 million units each year, ringing up $30 million in annual sales.

Baxter announced the voluntary recall of nine lots of heparin on Jan. 17, 2008, after reports of allergic-type reactions in patients given the drug. A month later, the FDA released a statement indicating that some patients who received heparin injections suffered symptoms, sometimes fatal, ranging from nausea and diarrhea to shortness of breath, dangerously low blood pressure and allergic or hypersensitivity reaction. The FDA noted that 350 adverse events had been reported since the end of 2007, three times the number that had been reported previously.

On April 21, 2008, the FDA updated the number of patients who died after receiving the drug. Between January 2007 and April 13, 2008, the FDA received 131 reports of fatalities. The number of deaths each month between January and September 2007 never exceeded four. In October, though, the number jumped to seven. In November there were 11. Twenty deaths were reported in December, 31 in January and 28 in February. By mid-April, 81 people had died in 2008 after receiving heparin.

Investigators with the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control subsequently announced that the drug had been contaminated with a chemically altered form of chondroitin sulfate at Chinese manufacturing facilities hired by Baxter.

The FDA sent a warning letter to one of Baxter's supplier, Changzhou SPL, on April 21, 2008. The FDA identified several problems at the Changzhou facilities, including the use of unclean tanks and raw materials supplied by unacceptable vendors that could not remove impurities found in the pig intestines.

Lawsuits have been filed against Baxter over the injuries and deaths caused by contaminated heparin. These suits allege that Baxter sold an unsafe and unreasonably dangerous drug, that it failed to inspect the drug and that the company failed to warn patients and medical providers of the dangers associated with the drug.

If you have a loved one who has been injured or died after receiving heparin, contact Carey & Danis. We can help. Carey & Danis is a national law firm that represents personal injury victims and their families.

At Carey & Danis, even though our lawyers have recovered more than $695 million through litigation, including individual settlements of over $10 million and class-wide settlements of more than $90 million, it is our clients whom we count as our most important asset.

For more information, fill out our online contact form or call Carey & Danis toll-free at 800-721-2519.