Heparin probe shows perils of offshore drug production


CHANGZHOU, China (AP) – On a dusty lane in east China, a small factory sitting amid strawberry and vegetable fields processes chemicals from pig guts into heparin, a commonly used blood thinner linked to 62 deaths and hundreds of allergic reactions in the U.S. and Germany.

The mysterious problems with heparin from the factory and others like it – China's deadliest product quality scandal since Chinese cough syrup killed 93 people in Central America a year ago – dramatically illustrate the perils of shifting drug production offshore.

By ELAINE KURTENBACH
13 April 2008

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