Blended Heparin: A new Perspective to Guarantee the Supply of a Life-Saving Drug?

Abstract

The risk of heparin shortage opens up the possibility of diversifying the sources of heparin by introducing products of other animal/organ origins. In addition to bovine heparin, already used in the past in the United States and Europe, ovine heparin can become another alternative to the widely used pig source. It is therefore appropriate to compare the anticoagulant activity of pig heparin with that of products of different animal origin and to verify whether blended heparin obtained from different sources can give rise to anticoagulant effects comparable to those of heparin of a single origin.