Chinese Heparin Debacle May Cause World Wide Shortage for Dialysis Providers

Implications: Although patient deaths are of grave concern, the impact of a heparin shortage stand to put around 400,000 US dialysis patients at risk.  Heparin is the "oil of hemodialysis" and without it, hemodialysis would come to a standstill. There are alternatives available, such as Andiomax and Lovenox, however, they are not practical for the hemodialysis community owing to the fact that they do not have an antagonist, such as propomine sulfate, to counteract their anticoagulative properties. Since Baxter presently produces 50% of all the heparin in the world, and they are vunerable, it would behove their competitors to increase production and corner the market.

Analysis:  Although Baxter and the FDA have made an agreement, not to suspend production of heparin, there is still a grave concern over the quality of the base product being imported.  Heathcare providers are now complaining about the 5,000 unit and 10,000 unit vials, which, supposedly, are not a concern.I find it strange that the article talks about the FDA and Baxter trying to prevent a heparin shortage in the dialysis community, being that a shortage and panic already exits.  Every distributor I know has had their entire inventories purchased and large dialysis providers are hording heparin.Distributors are presently making a killing, some selling heparin anywhere from two to five times it's original value.The truth is that a shortage of heparin already exits in the dialysis community in the USA, which cares for around 400,000 patients.  Our only hope is for other heparin manufacturers to boost their production.  I only hope that their base souce of heparin is not from China and is produced in an FDA INSPECTED and approved facility.