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 ...
Some strategic investment in US major pharmaceuticals and biotechs would be a handsome accessory to the manufacturing hold China already enjoys. No actual voting or controlling interest needed. Money exerts a pre-emptive influence in ways far apart and in advance of any vote that comes before the shareholders. You only have to look at Mattel's craven behavior following the recent toy recalls to see how this could play out systemically.
Oh Goody...
You know, quality control is a good thing
especially when it is useful to know what drug you are taking
the dose, adsorption kinetics, and adulterants
“Han, we are running low on filler for the Viagra!”
“Mix in some Warfarin, Mei. They’ll never know the difference”
If I remember correctly (it was a long time ago...), when Comrade Breshnev had heart surgery, the Soviets secured and used drugs made here in the good ‘ol USA. The point being, when it really had to count, the commies knew they couldn’t trust their own systems of supply.
Aw c'mon with this old line. Most manufacturing plants that have shut down and moved to China have been non union. Most manufacturing jobs are non union BTW.
I share your sentiments. However, there is a possibility that what you are tasting is an inactive coating, made of some paste with sugar as a component. Many drugs have such coatings, to delay absorbtion and cover the awful taste of the active ingredients.
If you have a public water supply, it may well be treated with chemicals which could theoretically come from China. If you have a home water treatment system, the chemicals it uses could come from China, eventually if not already.
See that machine way in back? That’s the one that puts a light coating of lead on the outside of each pill!
It’s not the coating - I bit into the pill, sweet all the way through. My m-i-l is a doctor and says that most prescription medications taste bitter, and if it isn’t bitter, there may be something wrong with it. So I’m a pill biter by habit now. Folic acid isn’t supposed to be bitter however but sour.
Lawyers just follow the money. Since a lawyer is the larval form of a politician, they too have a vested interest in haunting Washington, getting the law itself twisted to their benefit, whole the medical monopolists do the same, each side desperately trying to raise enough money to keep the other fed. And the party that pays for both sides of this process is, ultimately, the consumer.
Notice the sudden prevalence of the meme that everything from China is lethally dangerous. Who do you think is promoting this idea? Since China's whole economy depends on selling goods to the US, it follows that they are going to jump on any instances of inferior product very quickly.
Furthermore, a free market does not mean buying everything from China, any more than it means buying every pill from Canadian socialists. We need the freedom to buy on world markets. If your insurance company will not pay for major surgery, you can already fly to India, get operated on at a fully accredited hospital, then squeeze in a week or two of vacation for a price that a middle-class family can afford. It's also already the case that you can get most prescriptions filled in Switzerland, which has similar quality controls to the US and does all its own research and production, for less. That is, it would be possible if we were allowed to.
You are probably right and the insurance companies run scams too. For example, the drugs Protonix and the purple pill. If you are on insurance with your company; whichever one your insurance company is promoting due to the manufacturer deal; is the one they want you to use. If you don’t have insurance you are in for a rude awakening. The one your insurance company recommended is $45 more than the other one without insurance.
I looked at some of the drugs offered at Walmart and I can truthfully say I have never heard of the brands.
Greeeattt.Now we have to get our daily allowance of lead and carbolic acid in our vitamins and pharmaceuticals from china.
The Walmart $4 drugs cover a whole lot of the basics - many of your chronic complaints - hypertension, cardiac, diabetes (oral agents), some of your asthma and COPD, arthritis, depression/anxiety, plus common infections. It wouldn’t necessarily be the best anti-hypertensive or anti-diabetic agent for you, but it would be something. They’re all generics and they seem to have an extensive anti-hypertensive and cardiac list. A good place to send patients on a limited income.
Pharmacies get their drugs through layers of middlemen. I don’t trust Walmart less than the others.
I don’t want just something. I want that something to help me.
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