German heparin also draws suspicion

WASHINGTON -- Dialysis patients in Germany have gotten sick using a different brand of the blood thinner heparin than was linked to 19 American deaths, U.S. officials announced Thursday, sparking concern the problem could be more widespread than originally believed.

In reaction, the Food and Drug Administration urged all U.S. suppliers of heparin to start using some special high-tech tests to make sure their products are free of a contaminant that is the prime suspect for hundreds of allergic-type reactions linked to Baxter International's U.S.-sold heparin injections.

Deerfield-based Baxter wasn't implicated in the German illnesses, and that's what raises the question of a bigger heparin problem.

Instead, the FDA said Germany is recalling heparin made by a German company that uses a different supplier of raw heparin ingredients than Baxter does.

Heparin is derived from pig intestines, and Baxter gets its supply from China, which is the world's leading source of heparin.

The FDA wouldn't say whether the German company, which it identified as RotexMedica GmbH, also bought from a Chinese supplier. Nor was it clear whether Germany has started testing its drug version for the contaminant, a compound that mimics heparin so precisely that it's not detected by standard drug-quality tests.