Workers in sterile suits prepare medicines at a plant in Hangzhou, China, last month. (Fan Di / McClatchy Tribune)
Posted on 12/08/2007 4:53:10 AM PST by JACKRUSSELL
(BEIJING)--The medicine cabinet in the average U.S. home is filling with drugs made in China, and some experts say that could be a prescription for trouble.
China’s booming pharmaceutical industry has doubled exports to the United States in the past five years, undercutting competitors and making American consumers reliant on the safety of Chinese factories and captive to any disruptions in Sino-U.S. commerce.
It might seem like merely a trade issue. But industry experts in Europe and the United States say that national security concerns are edging into the debate.
Consider this scenario:
If a major anthrax attack were to occur in the United States — larger than the one in 2001, when five people died — pharmaceutical companies that make the two antibiotics most suitable for treatment, Cipro and doxycycline, would have no choice but to rely on China or India for key ingredients once American stockpiles were exhausted. Those ingredients no longer are made in the West.
A Portuguese company that ramped up doxycycline production in 2001 at Washington’s request said that China now controlled the flow of its crucial drug component.
“If we were asked to do this again, we would be dependent on China providing us with key starting materials that are unavailable in the rest of the world,” said Guy Villax, chief executive of Hovione, a Lisbon-based fine chemicals company.
The spectacular growth of China’s pharmaceutical industry coincides with some equally huge problems. A kickback scandal ensnared China’s State Food and Drug Administration and its chief in charges that they gave approval for bogus drugs, including a counterfeit antibiotic that left 13 people dead. Wary of rising public anger, the state issued a Draconian sanction: It executed the agency chief in July......
(Excerpt) Read more at kansascity.com ...
Workers in sterile suits prepare medicines at a plant in Hangzhou, China, last month. (Fan Di / McClatchy Tribune)
Wow.
How much of this is based on union demands, and ecoterrorists commands? Thanks, dims!
Maybe he was in cahoots...
***
This is the reason we can't "recapture the 60's ideals." The drugs just aren't as good.
We keep hearing that the high costs of drugs comes from research, not manufacturing. I would be happy to pay $5 at Walmart instead of $4. I’m turning into a trade protectionist especially on national security issues.
Yesterday I tried talking to the Walmart pharmacist about my suspicions that the folic acid tablets were sugar pills - it should taste sour from what I can figure - and he was totally dismissive “It’s not made in China - it has a US manufacturer - if the chemicals do come from China, the company lab always does quality tests...”
Yuh-huh. Just like they do on toys.
Will our illustrious congress people do something about it or kill us
Not only drugs, but also vitamins we take often come from China. In fact, if you take vitamin C...it is probably manufactured in China, but you’d never know it because it is sold under an American label.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003732744_vitamins03.html
Anybody here believe that herbal remedy plants in China are like this? This was a show.
“Just suppose you are taking some cholesterol drug, and its intermediates or active ingredients are made in China. Then there’s some conflict with Taiwan. Will your drug still be available?” asked Joe Acker, president of the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers’ Association, a trade group in Washington. “The whole drug supply could be in jeopardy in these kinds of situations.”
The same could be said about steel, copper, electronics, clothing, etc. The god of supercapitalism have sold, not their souls , but ours, in the name of profit.
That’s why I won’t buy their $4 drugs. Who knows where they came from. For all I know; they came behind the building in an illegal drug lab.
It is scary.
In this case and many others the verify is gone.
The quality control and counterfeit detection on any drugs is lacking, generic or name-brand. I honestly don’t think that CVS is getting different drugs than Walmart is. Health care and drug pricing is so fouled up, with the individual payer usually being charged about four times as much as the insurance company is.
My guess is that Walmart just cut the insurance companies out of a lot of their drug transactions and gave those prices to the consumer.
The quality control and counterfeit detection on any drugs is lacking, generic or name-brand. I honestly don’t think that CVS is getting different drugs than Walmart is. Health care and drug pricing is so fouled up, with the individual payer usually being charged about four times as much as the insurance company is.
My guess is that Walmart just cut the insurance companies out of a lot of their drug transactions and gave those prices to the consumer.
I’m SICK of hearing about all the bad food, toy, and now medicine that is being imported from China.
Geez, don’t our leaders know to NEVER TRUST A COMMIE????
Bravo Sierra. It’s called lawyers and litigation and insurance companies.
Unfortunately my cholesterol drugs are made in India. And within the above story is the bad news about antibiotics.
America is slowing killing itself.
Our food additives come from China, our vitamins come from china, Our antibiotic ingredients are from china.....Hopefully the water we drink is local and won’t be poisoned as well...
IMHO in your case you'll drop dead from worrying about what might happen long before anything actually does happen
Most drugs are dangerous, regardless of where they are made.
No more troublesome than the Clinton links to China. If we can just kill enough Americans, all of Hitlary’s programs will work. There will be plenty of medical services for those left to receive them, they just won’t be very good. We can all serve the collective, National Socialist Party and call her Fuhrer.
Remember it was Billary Care that ended vaccine making in the U.S. Just one more step...
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