Baxter is a major U.S. seller of the blood-thinning drug, heparin, although the deaths have not been linked to any one company. Baxter has recalled most of its heparin products, whose raw ingredients were largely imported from China.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chief executive of Baxter International will testify before U.S. lawmakers next week, in their probe of a contaminated drug that has led to at least 81 deaths, a lawmaker said on Friday.
Baxter is a major U.S. seller of the blood-thinning drug, heparin, although the deaths have not been linked to any one company. Baxter has recalled most of its heparin products, whose raw ingredients were largely imported from China.
A U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will hold a hearing next Tuesday called "The Heparin Disaster: Chinese Counterfeits and American Failures," the latest in a slew of hearings to address shortcomings in the U.S. inspection process.
Baxter CEO Robert Parkinson will testify, along with Food and Drug Administration drug unit chief Janet Woodcock, according to Democratic Rep. John Dingell, chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee.
!ADVERTISEMENT!Many lawmakers on Dingell's panel earlier this week blasted the FDA for lax oversight of drugs coming from other countries.
Also slated to testify are the CEOs of Scientific Protein Labs, the Chinese supplier of some of the heparin Baxter had used; and Medicines Co, which makes a similar drug called Angiomax.
APP Pharmaceuticals also sells heparin.
(Reporting by Kim Dixon, editing by Richard Chang)
