What Patients Need to Know about Pharmaceutical Supply Chains—Chapter 7
Everything a critcal thinker needs to know about the supply chains for SARS-CoV-2 injections—packed with facts and evidence that can't be refuted.
7. THE POTENTIAL FOR PATIENT HARM
The heparin tragedy
It is not just issues locked into the commercial supply chain at launch. There is potential for a far more serious outcome.
In 2007/8, pharmaceutical supply chains became the subject of global debate among key stakeholders, but for the wrong reasons. A tragic event occurred that shocked the world into realizing that pharmaceutical supply chains had the potential to kill and maim unsuspecting patients.
A blood thinning agent, heparin, had been adulterated due to the product license holder (Baxter) procuring a toxic substance that had been illegally substituted for the genuine registered material. The adulterated product was found to have caused nine patient deaths and 574 serious adverse events (SAEs).
The full account of this has been documented in the report: After Heparin: Protecting Consumers from the Risks of Substandard and Counterfeit Drugs, authored by PEW Health Group.