› $4.85 Billion settlement in drug case
A team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has confirmed that over-sulfated chondroitin sulfate was, in fact, the contaminant in heparin that was manufactured in China and triggered serious allergic reactions that caused more than 80 Americans to die and hundreds more to be sickened earlier this year, according to ABC Action News.
Drug maker Baxter International Inc., shelled out more than $720,000 in the third quarter of the year lobbying on health care issues including government reimbursement for kidney dialysis treatment and increased funding for kidney disease education, according to Forbes/Associated Press.
Scientists at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have learned to modify the human enzyme that produces heparin, which may lead to a more effective synthetic version of the blood thinner, according to Newswise Medical News.
Researchers have come up with an easy and effective method to detect contaminates in heparin, according to the Times of the Internet. A research team led from the University of Michigan and led by Mark Meyerhoff uses potentiometric polyanion sensors to detect heparin in blood. These sensors also can be used to distinguish pure heparin from heparin contaminated with small quantities of oversulfated chondroitin sulfate.
A recent Time magazine story gives us a glimpse into a family affected by the contaminated heparin tragedy: Leroy Hubley’s wife of 48 years, Bonnie, suffered from polycystic kidney disease, a genetic kidney disease in which cysts grow in the kidneys, causing them to fail. She received a kidney transplant in October 2007, but her body rejected it, leaving her in need of regular dialysis treatments.
Heparin remains in high demand in the United States, with more than 300,000 doses used daily. The blood thinner, which has been widely used since the 1930s, saves lives by preventing potentially fatal blood clots and reducing the amount of time patients with kidney failure stay on dialysis machines. However, controversy surrounds the medication and companies are quickly working on alternatives.
People who have high cholesterol may have another alternative to statin drugs – a method that literally sucks bad cholesterol right out of a patient’s blood, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Despite heparin-recall woes earlier in the year, Pharmaceutical drug giant Baxter International announced that it had a 19 percent increase in third-quarter profits, according to a Baxter International press release.
Next month the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case that could decide whether people harmed by prescription drugs could recover damages for their injuries by suing in state courts. The pharmaceutical industry argues that manufacturers whose drugs are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should be protected from liability, according to the Natural News.
