Shortage of injectable argotroban

The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists reports a shortage of injectable argotroban. This drug shortage is very important to people who can't take heparin. Sometimes heparin causes a reduction in the number of platelets in a person's blood to an unsafe level (thrombocytopenia). If this happens, the closely supervised use of argotroban can prevent blood clotting until the platelets return to a normal level. Then the dosage of another anticoagulant such as warfarin can be carefully adjusted while the argotroban dosage is decreased.