Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

FDA Quest for Poisoned Drugs Went Cold in China
Star-Tribune Minneapolis-St. Paul ^ | June 16, 2007 | By Walt Bogdanich, New York Times

Posted on 06/16/2007 7:36:59 PM PDT by JACKRUSSELL

After a drug ingredient from China killed dozens of Haitian children a decade ago, a senior American health official sent a cable to her investigators: Find out who made the poisonous ingredient and why a state-owned company in China exported it as safe, pharmaceutical-grade glycerin.

The Chinese were of little help. Requests to find the manufacturer were ignored. Business records were withheld or destroyed.

The Americans had reason for alarm. "The U.S. imports a lot of Chinese glycerin, and it is used in ingested products such as toothpaste," Mary K. Pendergast, then-deputy commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration, wrote on Oct. 27, 1997. Learning how diethylene glycol, a syrupy poison used in some antifreeze, ended up in Haitian fever medicine might "prevent this tragedy from happening again," she wrote.

The FDA's mission ultimately failed. By the time an FDA agent visited the suspected manufacturer, the plant was shut down and Chinese companies said they bore no responsibility for the mass poisoning.

Ten years later it happened again, this time in Panama. Chinese-made diethylene glycol, masquerading as its more expensive chemical cousin, glycerin, was mixed into medicine, killing at least 100 people there last year. And recently, Chinese toothpaste containing diethylene glycol was found in the United States and seven other countries, prompting tens of thousands of tubes to be recalled.

The FDA's efforts to investigate the Haiti poisonings, documented in internal FDA memorandums obtained by the New York Times, demonstrate not only the intransigence of Chinese officials but also the same regulatory failings that allowed a virtually identical poisoning to occur 10 years later. The cases further illustrate what happens when nations fail to police the global pipeline of pharmaceutical ingredients......

(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: china; fda; freetrade

1 posted on 06/16/2007 7:37:03 PM PDT by JACKRUSSELL
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: JACKRUSSELL

When did Haiti become a State?


2 posted on 06/16/2007 7:40:49 PM PDT by Build_The_Fence (Mr. Bush....tear up that Bill)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JACKRUSSELL

And we continue to do business with the Chicoms why?


3 posted on 06/16/2007 7:41:39 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (G-d is not a Republican. But Satan is definitely a Democrat.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Build_The_Fence

I was wondering that myself.


4 posted on 06/16/2007 7:43:37 PM PDT by Dahoser (Never question Mr. Nibbles!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Blood of Tyrants

Cheap production costs. Public health and safety are secondary to the stock rates.


5 posted on 06/16/2007 7:43:39 PM PDT by cripplecreek (Greed is NOT a conservative ideal.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: cripplecreek

That’s what happens in a country ruled by a government that is a ditatorship. Dictorships have no basis in any moral ethics, and thus answer to nothing except the preservation of power at the point of a gun.


6 posted on 06/16/2007 7:50:57 PM PDT by The Bronze Titan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: JACKRUSSELL

Thanks for posting. BTTT!


7 posted on 06/16/2007 7:52:22 PM PDT by PGalt
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JACKRUSSELL

Ok, over the last two months, this “anti-freeze” tothpaste has been discovered in the USA and Canada, often under the “Colgate” brand name(counterfeit). What has been done about it? Nothing.


8 posted on 06/16/2007 7:55:44 PM PDT by spyone
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: The Bronze Titan

There are certain things that just should not be bought from a country that isn’t free. I always wondered why vodka from Soviet Russia was allowed to be shipped to America.


9 posted on 06/16/2007 7:56:14 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: spyone

very interesting, i’m curious where we can see the reports on this. the colgate company would have a cat and kittens over this.


10 posted on 06/16/2007 7:57:13 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: HiTech RedNeck

Here’s one link.

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_business?id=161163365


11 posted on 06/16/2007 8:02:52 PM PDT by spyone
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: JACKRUSSELL

A simple NMR spectrum can distinguish glycerin from diethylene glycol, takes about 10 minutes, and might set you back $50 bucks at a university chemistry lab. (Less than that if you get a grad student to run the spectrum.) And one test would be good for any quantity from a bottle to a supertanker, so long as the contents of the bottle (or supertanker) could be assured of having throughly mixed before the test sample was taken.

Considering lives are at stake, this doesn’t seem like too high a price to pay - and frankly, it’s peanuts.


12 posted on 06/16/2007 8:44:16 PM PDT by coloradan (Failing to protect the liberties of your enemies establishes precedents that will reach to yourself.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Blood of Tyrants

Because America is run by the Globalists, in spite of what Traitor Lott has to say on the subject.


13 posted on 06/16/2007 8:52:52 PM PDT by Duke Nukum (The World is Not Enough)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson