Imminent risk of a global shortage of heparin caused by the African Swine Fever afflicting the Chinese pig herd

Abstract

Summary Most of the unfractionated and low‐molecular‐weight heparins available worldwide are produced by Chinese companies from porcine mucosa. China is the world′s largest producer of pork and thus has plenty of raw material to produce heparins. However, the deadly African Swine Fever (ASF) outbreaks afflicting China since August 2018 may cause extensive losses to the pig herd, with serious consequences for the global supply of heparins. In 2008, a sudden shortage of heparin's raw material resulting from a viral disease in Chinese pigs prompted adulterations responsible for 80 deaths and hundreds of adverse events. This incident revealed the fragility of such a supply chain, which is mostly based on raw material from a single animal from a single country. A worldwide introduction of bovine mucosa heparins manufactured in different countries certainly is a feasible way to mitigate eventual shortages of these life‐saving anticoagulants caused by local veterinary problems such as the ASF threatening China now.

Synthetic Heparan Sulfate Mimetic Pixatimod (PG545) Potently Inhibits SARS-CoV-2 By Disrupting The Spike-ACE2 interaction

“…Though low molecular weight heparins (LMWHs) overcome some of these issues, they were optimized for anticoagulant rather than anti-viral activities, and their efficacy may be lower compared with heparin as they are less effective at binding to S1 RBD (Mycroft-West et al, 2020b) and inhibiting pseudovirus entry (Tandon, 2020). It is also noteworthy that heparin and LMWH are subject to the well known fragility of heparin's supply chain (Vilanova et al, 2019). Though pharmaceutical-grade UFH and LMWH preparations remain a polydisperse mixture of natural products, containing both anticoagulant and non-anticoagulant saccharide structures, these are considered an invaluable resource for development of next-generation antiviral agents that display negligible anticoagulant potential (Mycroft-West et al, 2020c).…”

When Pigs Fly: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Navigating a Critical Heparin Shortage

“…The authors of the letter noted that essentially all of the heparin supply in the U.S. is porcine‐derived and that approximately 60% of the crude heparin used in the U.S. is imported from China . Because an outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) in China had claimed the lives of as many as 150 million of the nation's 440 million pigs in less than 1 year, representatives in the House were significantly concerned about the future availability of heparin . At the time the letter was sent, two companies, Baxter International Inc. and Pfizer Inc.'s Hospira, were already listed on the FDA's website as having shortages of heparin that dated back to as early as November 2017 .…”

High-throughput and all-solution phase African Swine Fever Virus (ASFV) detection using CRISPR-Cas12a and fluorescence based point-of-care system

“…Although ASFV cannot infect humans, the impact of the disease in Asia has been causing significant economic losses and shows no signs to slowing down (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/09/philippines-confirmsfirst-swine-fever-cases). Moreover, heparin, a polymer that is widely used as an anticoagulant for the treatment of heart attack and unstable angina, could face a global shortage because nearly 80% of crude heparin is derived from mucosal tissues of pigs (Vilanova et al, 2019).…”