Officials: Deaths linked to heparin batch

CHICAGO, July 30 (UPI) -- U.S. health officials say they have been able to connect three deaths to a contaminated batch of the blood-thinning drug heparin.

A spike in the number of allergic reactions by hospital patients injected with the drug prompted its manufacturer, Baxter International Inc., of suburban Chicago, to pull the heparin from distribution in February. Since then, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been examining reports of 93 deaths related to heparin.

An FDA scientist told the Chicago Tribune three of the deaths have been linked to a specific batch of heparin contaminated by an animal-like substance known as oversulfated chondroitin sulfate, the newspaper reported Wednesday.

"We have what looks like a cause and effect in some patients," Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, told the Tribune. "We know that they got contaminated heparin, and they died subsequently. This is one of the final links in the chain."

Baxter officials said the company wouldn't comment on the FDA's analysis until it had a chance to review it.