Heparin News and Research

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Heparin, a highly-sulfated glycosaminoglycan, is widely used as an injectable anticoagulant, and has the highest negative charge density of any known biological molecule. It can also be used to form an inner anticoagulant surface on various experimental and medical devices such as test tubes and renal dialysis machines. Pharmaceutical grade heparin is derived from mucosal tissues of slaughtered meat animals such as porcine (pig) intestine or bovine (cow) lung.

New approaches to prevent blood clots

The largest study ever to examine the preventive use of blood-thinning medication to help prevent deadly blood clots in patients with cancer undergoing chemotherapy presented December 7 during the 50th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology in San Francisco, CA.

8 Dec 2008

Scientists create synthetic Heparin in more varieties

Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have learned to customize a key human enzyme responsible for producing heparin, opening the door to a more effective synthetic anticoagulant as well as treatments for other conditions.

25 Nov 2008

Simple, inexpensive method for detecting contaminants in heparin

The blood-thinning drug heparin is highly effective when used to prevent and treat blood clots in veins, arteries and lungs, but earlier this year its reputation as a lifesaver was sullied when contaminated heparin products caused serious allergic reactions that led to a large number of deaths.

17 Nov 2008

FDA seizes Heparin from Cincinnati manufacturer

As part of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's ongoing efforts to ensure that heparin for patients remains safe, the government today seized 11 lots of heparin from Celsus Laboratories Inc. in Cincinnati, Ohio.

7 Nov 2008

Advisers to Presidential candidates discuss positions on reimportation, generics, biotechnology medications

Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) have begun "reviewing their support" for prescription drug reimportation in response to recent cases of contaminated medications and other products from other nations, advisers to the candidates said on Thursday during the annual conference of the Generic Pharmaceutical Association in Washington, D.C., Reuters/Boston Globe reports.

22 Sep 2008

FDA posts names of prescription drugs being investigated for potential safety problems

FDA officials on Friday said the agency will begin publishing quarterly a list of drugs being investigated for potential safety risks, the Washington Post reports.

9 Sep 2008

Pre-hospital treatment on the way to percutaneous coronary intervention

For patients with acute ST-segment-elevation AMI (STEMI) within 12 hours after symptom onset and with persistent ST-segment elevation, or new or presumednew left bundle-branch block with concomitant ST-segment elevation, restoring coronary blood flow as early as possible is the main goal of reperfusion strategies.

2 Sep 2008

Safety of antithrombotic treatment in acute coronary syndromes

The management of acute coronary syndromes (with or without ST segment elevation) requires the use of anticoagulants, antiplatelet agents (aspirin, clopidogrel and/or glycoprotein (GP) IIb/IIIa inhibitors), beta-blockers, thrombolytics in some cases, and revascularization / reperfusion.

2 Sep 2008

European guidelines for acute pulmonary embolism

Acute pulmonary embolism (PE) is a relatively common cardiovascular emergency. Clots originating in the leg veins may become detached and obstruct the lung vessels. This obstruction may lead to a rise of pressure in the pulmonary circulation and possibly to life-threatening heart failure.

2 Sep 2008

Researchers create synthetic heparin

Robert Linhardt has spent years stitching together minuscule carbohydrates to build a more pure and safer alternative to the commonly used and controversial blood thinner heparin. At the national conference of the American Chemical Society on August 17, 2008, Linhardt announced that his research team may have accomplished this task by building the first fully synthetic heparin. Their creation is the largest dose of heparin ever created in the lab.

17 Aug 2008

Maternal deaths following cesarean delivery can be reduced

Maternal death rates have remained constant in the United States for many decades. Are there any improvements in health care that could reduce these rates further?

4 Aug 2008

Study examines heparin use following cardioembolic stroke

The common practice of administering heparin soon after cardioembolic stroke is associated with an increased risk for serious bleeding, according to an article posted online today that will appear in the September 2008 print issue of Archives of Neurology. However, it appears that anticoagulation with warfarin therapy may safely begin shortly after stroke.

14 Jul 2008

New evidence-based blood clot guidelines for pregnant women

New evidence-based guidelines address the prevention and management of thrombosis in key patient populations and reinforce recommendations related to the routine use of preventive therapies.

24 Jun 2008

Alchemia granted first two patents in the "Synthetic Heparin Oligosaccharide" family of patents

Alchemia Ltd. has announced the granting of the first two patents in the "Synthetic Heparin Oligosaccharide" family of patents.

23 Jun 2008

Death rate linked to comtaminated heparin almost doubles

The drug watchdog in the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have updated the number of deaths in patients who took the drug heparin.

17 Jun 2008

Bush Administration requests $275 million increase for FDA in FY 2009 budget

The Bush Administration on Monday requested that Congress allocate an additional $275 million in fiscal year 2009 for FDA, the New York Times reports. The funds would be used to improve drug and food safety in the U.S. (Harris, New York Times, 6/10).

11 Jun 2008

Latest drug scare in China sees six dead

In the last 10 days six people have died in east China's Jiangxi province after being injected with human immunoglobulin at a hospital in the provincial capital Nanchang.

3 Jun 2008

Less than 1 in 5 patients receive treatment to prevent venous thrombosis after surgery

Fewer than 1 in 5 patients received post-discharge therapy to prevent life-threatening blood clots - venous thrombosis - after hip- or knee-replacement surgery, report Rahme and colleagues in a retrospective cohort study. Venous thrombosis is one of the leading causes of death among hospital patients. However, elderly patients have a 70% lower chance of dying within 3 months if they take an anticoagulant drug to prevent blood clots.

2 Jun 2008

Avoiding spleen removal for Cooley's anemia sufferers

Researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College may have discovered the precise role of a gene in one of the world's most common blood disorders, beta-thalassemia, commonly known as Cooley's anemia. Along with sickle-cell anemia, Cooley's anemia is the most commonly inherited disease in the world, affecting many people of Mediterranean descent, and 20 out of every 100,000 African-Americans. The World Health Organization estimates that between 50,000-100,000 children are born with the disease each year.

27 May 2008

Bivalirudin improves net clinical outcomes and increases survival in heart attack patients

A study led by Gregg W. Stone, M.D., professor of medicine at Columbia University Medical Center/NewYork-Presbyterian and chairman of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation, has shown that heart attack patients who were administered the direct thrombin inhibitor bivalirudin during primary angioplasty had a reduced rate of adverse clinical events, a lower rate of major bleeding, and a lower mortality rate than those who were treated with a regimen of heparin and glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors (GPI).

26 May 2008