Heparin, porcine mucosa (China)

Heparin, the reference anticoagulant in surgery and dialysis, is extracted from porcine intestinal mucosa whose collection China, the leading pig producer, dominates. The 2008 scandal, a contaminant, oversulfated chondroitin, causing about a hundred deaths in the United States, revealed the fragility of this diffuse, poorly traceable biological chain. African swine fever, which decimated the Chinese herd, casts a recurring risk of disruption.