Heparin: How much is enough?

According to the FDA, over one million doses of heparin were ingested by people who require use of the blood thinning medication. While one would assume that this would be a safe product since it is taken by so many people, the fact remains that this is a very dangerous drug. In fact, a number of fatalities have been reported. This is why a series of warnings has been issued by the FDA.

However, this brings about the question why is heparin such a dangerous product?

This question takes on a unique dimension when it is revealed heparin has been on the market for 70 years. Yes, you read that correctly. Heparin has been on the market for seven decades. How to the drug become so dangerous in only recent memory?

It is possible that there had been a number of problems with heparin in the past that have gone unnoticed, but this would be very unlikely. When you are talking about 70 years and millions of doses clearly a dangerous product would have revealed itself in the past.

Currently, the reasons behind the dangers of heparin are unknown and an investigation is under way. Hopefully, this investigation will reveal the reason why new product has become so harmful. From this, the ability to prevent such an incident from occurring in the future will be reduced.

At the present time, one needs to suffice with the cryptic warning as it is more important understand the clear and present danger as opposed to the reasons behind it.

Will the warnings of lawsuits associated with a heparin errode public confidence in the pharmaceutical companies? To a slim degree, it will. There, most people do realize that these types of problems are an anomaly and generally pharmaceutical drugs are safe and improve the quality of life.