SAN FRANCISCO (Thomson Financial) - Bayer AG's Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals Inc. plans to remove the remaining stock of its clotting drug Trasylol from the U.S. market, the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday.

Most of the drug, which is used to control bleeding during heart surgery, is in warehouses and hospital or physician's stock, the agency said. Access to the medication has been limited to investigational use.

ATLANTA - Heart surgery patients were more likely to die if given the anti-bleeding drug Trasylol, two more U.S. studies have found, renewing the claims that the drug is dangerous.

Bayer AG stopped selling the drug last fall, after a Canadian study was halted because of deaths among patients taking Trasylol.

But the new research reignited controversy over Trasylol, which was on the market for 14 years and used by doctors to treat hundreds of thousands of heart bypass patients each year.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23259981/