APP Pharmaceuticals raises heparin prices

SCHAUMBURG, Ill.—APP Pharmaceuticals said today that it has raised its price of the blood-thinning drug heparin due to more product testing and the increase in cost of raw materials resulting from the discovery of contaminated heparin coming from China.

For dialysis patients, APP’s increased the price about 6 cents per 1,000 units of heparin, which amounts to approximately 48 cents per dialysis treatment, according to APP.

“The tainted heparin supply has resulted in skyrocketing crude heparin prices and a tight supply of the starting material,” APP wrote in a news release. “The decrease in the supply of raw heparin has been compounded by an increase in demand for heparin, which also serves as starting material for low-molecular weight heparin in global markets.”

The blood-thinning heparin is often used in dialysis treatments and is derived from pig intestines, which are mostly supplied from China. Baxter had to recall its supply of heparin after hundreds of adverse reactions were reported across the United States, and a contaminant was found in the supply chain from China.

The contaminate—which may have caused up to 81 deaths—has been found in 11 countries and has been linked to 12 Chinese sources, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

As a result of Baxter’s recall, APP said it is currently the sole supplier of therapeutic heparin vials in the United States. In order to increase production, APP said it has made internal investments to add new fill and packaging lines as well as additional staff, including manufacturing, customer service, distribution and quality analytical personnel.

APP said it all of its product has been found to be free of contaminants after it completed testing on all lots of its raw material dating back to January 2006. In addition, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration also tested select APP material and confirmed the purity of APP’s heparin.

Share this article: Email, Slashdot, Digg, Del.icio.us, Yahoo!MyWeb, Windows Live Favorites, Furl
Add this article feed to: RSS, My Yahoo, Newsgator, Bloglines

Read Comments [0]