French pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis has announced that its blood thinning injection drug Lovenox has been found to be slightly tainted with the same contaminant that was linked to 81 US deaths-over-sulfated chondroitin sulfate. However, Sanofi-s contaminated heparin has not been linked to any adverse health reactions and probably will not cause any since the size of the contaminant is relatively small.
Sanofi’s revelation comes in the wake of Baxter’s heparin problem which was linked to contaminated heparin from Chinese plants. The furor over the contamination has caused problems between China and US and has led to Congressional inquiries over the safety of Chinese imports. Regulators inspecting the Chinese plants faulted them for quality control issues as well as plant safety problems.