During an advisory committee meeting with its Science Board
in early June, the FDA suggested a reintroduction into the
US market of bovine-derived heparin. Despite theoretical
risks associated with bovine-derived products, heparin is a
vital product for clinical use, FDA representatives argued, and
single-animal/country-specific sourcing is risky. Molly Fellin
Spence of Thomson Reuters reminds us of what happened
in the 1990s, when bovine-derived heparin was voluntarily
removed from the market by manufacturers due to theoretical
concerns related to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE),
commonly known as mad cow disease.