Heparin is one of the most widely used drugs in the world and is obtained solely from animal sources.
3 July, 2024
Pablo Ramírez
Director of Innovation at Horizon
No plants, fungi or bacteria synthesise heparin. And although scientists have been trying for decades, so far no efficient, reliable chemical or biotechnological alternative has been found either. So, extracting heparin from animal organs has always been the production pathway of choice, and is currently the only one available on the market.
Heparin was first isolated from dog liver cells. Although it can be found in various animal organs, the lungs and intestinal mucosa are known to be essential raw materials for making heparin and the latter yields greater amounts in a format that is easier to isolate. In terms of the animal species, although there is still residual production of heparin from bovine sources, mainly for Muslim and ultra-Orthodox Jewish markets, this pharmaceutical ingredient is mainly obtained and purified from the intestinal mucosa of pigs today.
The porcine intestinal mucosa is obtained from the small intestine, which is approximately 20 metres long. It is squeezed using special machines to separate the mucosa from the submucosa, which is used to make sausages. You’ll find it used as the casing for many traditional Spanish products like longaniza, chorizo and fuet.
The intestinal mucosa then undergoes a biotechnology process to extract the heparin in our fractionation units, which has several steps:
- Enzymatic digestion and thermal treatment are used to break down the tissue structures and membrane of the mast cells, which are the cells in the intestinal mucosa that store heparin.
- After it has been released, heparin is captured using an electrochemical process taking advantage of its high negative charge.
- Then, it is purified by eliminating proteins and other organic compounds to reach the pharmaceutical grade required for it to be used as an injectable anticoagulant and antithrombotic.
Heparin is an essential medicine that saves over a hundred million lives each year. Once again, pigs are essential to people and, as the saying goes, we use everything but the squeal.
Enjoy your holidays ☀️🌊⛰️. We’ll be back in September with more posts from the #HorizonWorld looking at the connection between pigs and heparin more in depth.