General Considerations for Diversifying Heparin Drug Products by Improving the Current Heparin Manufacturing Process and Reintroducing Bovine Sourced Heparin to the US Market

Abstract

Heparin is one of the most widely used drugs in the world. It has been described as a lifesaving drug due to its roles in treating many serious diseases and illnesses including kidney dialysis, surgery, cardiac-invasive, heart attack, cardiac arrhythmia, acute coronary syndrome, pulmonary embolism, stroke, deep vein thrombosis, blood clot prevention, and many other related uses. Heparin drug products currently approved in the United States are obtained from porcine intestinal mucosa sourced from pigs, the majority of which is imported from China. However, due to the heparin contamination crisis (2008) and potential shortage and to safeguard the quality of current and future heparin supply chains including raw material, Food and Drug administration (FDA) posted a notification on its website titled “FDA Encourages Reintroduction of Bovine-Sourced Heparin”. This perspective is intended to address the history of regulatory and scientific background of heparin drug products obtained from bovine and porcine sources and general recommendations for improving the quality of current heparin manufacturing process including Critical Quality Attributes (CQA), control management, process control, related tests, limits, etc. Additionally, a general plan with systematic steps is proposed for diversifying heparin supply chains by reintroduction of bovine sourced heparin to the US market.