Late News: FDA chief questioned on heparin inquiry

Two congressmen asked Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg to answer questions about the agency’s handling of the investigation into the source of contaminated heparin linked to more than 200 deaths in 2008. In a letter sent to Hamburg, U.S. Reps. Joe Barton (R-Texas), ranking member on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Michael Burgess (R-Texas), ranking member of the panel’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, said the FDA has failed to follow up on leads linking Chongqing Imperial and certain other Chinese drug suppliers to multiple lots of contaminated heparin identified during the 2008 recalls. Barton and Burgess asked Hamburg to provide details about the agency’s strategy for solving the unresolved investigation.