Health Highlights: Nov. 7, 2008

The agency has notified Australian, Canadian, European Union, Japanese and other international authorities about shipments of contaminated heparin from Celsus.

Earlier this year, the FDA received reports of multiple illnesses anddeaths linked to OSCS contamination in injectable drug products containingheparin. In response, the agency said, it improved inspection and import controls programs and has initiated 13 recalls of contaminated medical products containing heparin from several companies.

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N. Dakota Warns About Lead in Wild Game Meat

Pregnant women and children younger than 6 years old shouldn't eat meat from wild game killed with lead bullets, North Dakota health officialswarned after the release Wednesday of a study that looked at lead levels inthe blood of more than 700 state residents.

The study, conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control andPrevention and the state health department, found that people who ate wildgame killed with lead bullets appeared to have higher lead levels than thosewho ate little or no such meat, theAssociated Pressreported.

The study is the first to link traces of lead in wild game meat withhigher levels of lead in the blood of people who eat the meat. Dr. StephenPickard, a CDC epidemiologist, said the study found "the more recent theconsumption of wild game harvested with lead bullets, the higher the levelof lead in the blood."

While the elevated lead levels associated with wild game meat weren't considered dangerous, North Dakota officials decided to issue the cautionbecause unborn babies and young children are considered most at risk fromlead poisoning, which can cause learning problems, convulsions and, insevere cases, brain damage and death.

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Pfizer Halts Testing on Anti-Obesity Drug

Testing on a new anti-obesity drug has been halted by Pfizer Inc. because gaining U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval would be too slow, expensive and risky,Bloombergnews reported.

Pfizer said it's not willing to put money into new human tests likely to be required by the FDA. The experimental drug -- dubbed CP-945,598 -- was in the third of three stages required for approval.

A similar anti-obesity drug developed by Sanofi-Aventis SA was rejected by the FDA in June 2007, and Merck & Co. halted development of an anti-obesity drug last month. Sanofi and Merck found that their drugs may be linked to suicide and depression,Bloomberg said.

The Pfizer, Sanofi and Merck anti-obesity drugs all block the same brain receptor that makes marijuana smokers hungry. The last major drug company still developing a similar drug is Bristol-Myers Squibb, the news service said.