Heparin is routinely given to patients before certain types of surgery and prior to treatments such as kidney dialysis to prevent blood clots from forming. Clots that do not naturally dissolve can travel through the blood stream and end up in the brain, causing stroke or in the lungs resulting in a pulmonary embolism.

Heparin is produced naturally by most animals, including humans, but most heparin used today is derived from pig intestines. China has become a popular location for manufacturing heparin because it has a much larger pig population. It is somewhat inexpensive to produce, however, ensuring the safety of drugs manufactured overseas has been a challenge for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Just last year, more than 80 Americans died and hundreds more were sickened after they received injections of specific batches of heparin that were manufactured in China. That heparin was later found to have been contained with oversulfated chrondroitin sulfate (OSCS). As a result, researchers have been working to find safer alternatives to heparin.

Liu, whose Recomparin research was published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal last November, says he is also looking into customizing heparin for other uses, such as a treatment for small-cell lung cancer.

SOURCE: Heparin Recall › Researcher awarded NIH grant for development of synthetic heparin