Is close good enough? Heparin fiasco.

The recent fiasco of Heparin being sold by Baxter International is going to lay the blame of FDA (lack of inspection) and companies from China and India for making poor quality product and shipping it to US sellers. This is very myopic thinking.

Companies in EU or US who are importing active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) from China and India very well know which manufacturing facilities in these two countries have been inspected by USFDA and EU regulators. If they are importing API and formulated drugs from un-inspected facilities, then the blame of non-compliance has to be squarely put on the companies selling these products in EU and US.

It is well known that the regulatory agencies do not have sufficient staff to be inspecting every facility. With that being the case, the companies that are selling the pharmaceuticals have shrugged their “corporate responsibility” of selling products that have to meet regulatory standards.

We saw the case of melamine being incorporated in the dog food to enhance the superficial nitrogen content to give the analytical people the “good feeling” of meeting the necessary standards. No one has studied the toxicity of a substituted non-food product on human and animal health. Same thing happened with toothpaste.

Baxter International did not set up the proper protocol with their Chinese suppliers. I am sure they had set up the standards that have to be strictly met. However, there were sufficient laxities in the spec and/or the protocol for slightly off-spec API to pass through. I would not be surprised that the API met every spec but was slightly off spec that if not carefully reviewed would meet the set specifications.

Having manufactured products that have dual use i.e. food grade and non-food grade, I can speculate and speak from experience. In the case of Heparin, the API could not be reworked to meet the specs. Since it was marginally off specification and might meet the spec if overlooked must have been the case for the lots imported by Baxter International.

Press, legislators, and consumers have to look at the facts before they jump to conclusion that FDA is not doing its job and companies in China and India are bad. Any company anywhere if gets a similar opportunity will try to use a short cut and reduce rework, which cuts into profits.

Let us think rationally and understand the facts. Right or wrong, the seller has to be blamed no matter what the facts are. They did not live to their responsibility.

Girish Malhotra