US health secretary: Chinese Heparin shipped to US now safe

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

SHANGHAI, China (AP) — A blood thinner manufactured in China and linked to dozens of deaths in the United States is now safe because of tighter testing and controls, a top American health official said Monday, while warning that all U.S. imports would face closer scrutiny in the future.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has linked 81 deaths and hundreds of allergic reactions to a contaminant found in China-made shipments of the drug heparin.

"We have put in place processes that we believe can ensure the safety of the heparin supply within the United States," U.S. Health and Human Services secretary Mike Leavitt told The Associated Press in an interview in Shanghai.

He said all exporters of food, drugs and other products must prepare to meet more stringent guidelines of quality and safety, following a raft of product safety problems stemming from lax standards among overseas producers, especially in China.



Read more: http://money.excite.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_rt_top.jsp?news_id=ap-d90k2ci01&

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We can't buy safe drugs from Canada, but China with a bad history of unsafe everything is OK????

[OhioChick]

1. We're supposed to believe that it's now "safe"

Given the pet food fiasco??

[annabanana]

2. Bill Gates just told Tokyo that Vista is as good a seller as XP

You only believe what you can....

[jmowreader]

6. It very well may be

When XP was the current OS, it came with almost every PC.

Now that Vista is the current OS, it comes with almost every PC.

So, in Gates' twisted world, it IS as good a seller.

[marmar]

3. Sure. 'Cause as we know, all Bush Administration officials are honest and not-at-all.....

.... beholden to global corporate interests. N'est-ce pas?


I'm sure the :sarcasm: icon isn't necessary.

[Bake]

4. I guess we can't make our own drugs here in the US of A

Left to its own devices, business cannot be trusted to do the RIGHT thing.

Bake

[phillysuse]

5. Let's inject Leavitt and his family with heparin

first to see if it is safe.