Resident Fellow Roger Bate

The recent furore over contaminated heparin, a blood-thinning drug, that killed at least 81 Americans, was just the latest in a string of medical problems traced back to Chinese food and pharmaceutical exports. Heparin was exported from Scientific Protein Laboratories LLC, based in Changzhou, China. Raw heparin is normally sourced from the intestines of pigs, but the US Food and Drug Administration found a contaminant that comes from pig cartilage. The contaminant--oversulphated-chondroitin sulphate--is much cheaper, but isn't approved for medical use because it can cause severe allergic reactions in humans. Prior cases of melaminecontaminated products follow a similar pattern. Cheaper contaminants are added, with Chinese authorities unable or unwilling to stop it. Why did Beijing not stop them?. . . .

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Roger Bate is resident fellow at AEI.