We've been asked: What is an information professional (IP)?
An IP finds, filters and analyzes information to strategically advance the mission of an organization. Using tools, techniques and technology, an IP accesses resources, as he/she delivers (often hard to find) information to make a company meet its objectives and/or become more competitive. Work is often done under NDA, on a project basis, or retainer. Inquiries welcome.
Is the Pig Man's New Best Friend?
It wasn't until a client sought research and analysis concerning the supply, demand and processing of pigs in China than we learned how remarkable the pig is (for humans). (Today's Heparin, oral or injectable, comes from the extraction of enzymes from Chinese pigs and intestines in particular which are slaughtered and processed in non-cGMP settings in China. The raw or crude heparin is shipped to US for more sophisticated processing under tight FDA regulated conditions.)
The client wanted to know - What is the outlook for Chinese pig production? What policy, environmental, disease, feeding, religious or cultural factors may get in the way of the slaughter of Chinese pigs? What factors may impact pig breeding, feed supply, slaughtering and processing, pricing and profits? What other countries' pigs are suitable for Heparin?
In light of the Baxter Healthcare Heparin contamination case, researchers Liu, Zhang and Linhardt compiled a definitive study that describes the process and issues that occured. Lessons Learned from the Contamination of Heparin, published by The Royal Society of Chemistry is readily available on liine. In the Baxter case, the contamination occured from anaphylactoid-type reactions, leading to hypotension and death ... assays can be used to detect known and unknown contaminants, but "safer and better-regulated processes are needed for heparin productions" Depending on the diet and environment in which the animals are raised, the cell content of intestinal tissue may vary. Methods of commercial production of pharmaceutical grade heparin are tightly guarded industrial secrets. Tissue sources have changed from dog liver to beef lung and finally to porcine intestines ... large scale commercial processes accomodate the 100 tons used each year worldwide!
Now that's a lot of pig!
Pigs are also being used as a source of health, insulin-oozing cells that might someday be transplanted into humans through stem cell research at University of Pittsburgh ...laboratory studies have already been conducted with sickened laboratory monkeys injected with live, pig pancreative cells and have reversed the monkey Type I diabetes!
Pigs are being used to grow organs for humans, rather than simply using pig parts, as heart valves. (New Scientist, June 2009).
Closer to home, CytoSolv Inc., a new Providence, RI company is developing a drug to help heal wounds using brain cells of a unique strain of pig that is found on remote Auckland Island, off the coast of New Zealand.
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