In what has only been mentioned in whispers has now come into the light of day during Congressional testimony-the heparin that led to 81 deaths in the United States may have been contaminated deliberately. The FDA has been considering this possibility for months but now the whispers have become public in testimony given to to the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.
David G. Strunce, chief executive of Scientific Protein Laboratories, the company that supplied contaminated heparin material to Baxter International, which manufactured and distributed the finished drug, described the contamination as “an insidious act” that “seems to us an intentional act upstream in the supply chain.”
The F.D.A. has identified Changzhou SPL, a Chinese subsidiary of Scientific Protein Laboratories, as the source of the contaminated heparin. A Congressional investigator said the contaminant, oversulfated chondroitin sulfate, cost $9 a pound compared with $900 a pound for heparin.
Mr. Strunce said that his company tried to find the original source of the contamination but was stopped by the Chinese authorities