Guidelines on heparin shortage released

The head of the TGA, Dr Rohan Hammett, and the Commonwealth chief medical officer, Professor John Horvath, released the guidelines last week in response to the TGA's recall of five batches of Clexane, a heparin product, on 22 April this year due to the detection of an impurity in the affected batches.

The guidelines are a precaution intended to facilitate national consistency in the use of remaining supplies and extend the availability of heparin-based products by prioritising their use according to clinical need.

They set out a staged approach according to the availability of the different products. The first stage, being implemented now, advises doctors to consider prudent use of existing heparin-based products, including the use of clinically acceptable alternatives where there is no compromise of the quality of care.

The guidelines are being distributed to the Australian Medical Association, the Divisions of General Practice, the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, medical colleges, the Australian Private Hospital Association, and the state and territory chief health officers and chief medical officers.