Some people will do anything to shove price controlled drugs from parts unknown down the the throats of unsuspecting Americans...that includes the editors at the San Jose Mercury News (there goes my chances for an oped placement)
From that august body:
"The Food and Drug Administration should be embarrassed by its lack of attention to the ingredients in prescription drugs.
The latest evidence is the 19 deaths and hundreds of allergic reactions reported by Americans using a bad batch of the drug thinner heparin. Some ingredients were contaminated, and the FDA admitted violating its own rules by not inspecting the Chinese factory where they were made.
This at the same time the FDA stubbornly refuses to allow cheaper prescription drugs to be imported. What hypocrisy."
http://www.hollandsentinel.com/stories/040808/opinion_20080408035.shtml
Some truth is in order by way of Andy von Eschenbach, FDA Commish:
"Our records at FDA indicated that we had inspected that facility in China, but that was incorrect. The inspection records we reviewed were on a facility with a very similar name. But having done the inspection in 2004 probably wouldn’t have prevented this problem, because this chemical contaminant cannot be detected using the standard testing methods for heparin. We have now developed new test methods to screen heparin for this new contaminant and regulators around the world are using those tests to protect their citizens. "
http://www.fda.gov/oc/vonEschenbach/andys_take/lifecycle.html
So much for the canard that the FDA "lied". What do you call a paper that calls someone else a liar when it knows that the very statement is not factual?
Now as to "hypocrisy", why would the FDA allow the importation of drugs from companies that are not producing for the US market when it's first priority is to improve the monitoring of the supply and production chain of products that are approved for US sale and distribution? Why indeed given the fact that counterfeit products are a growing problem worldwide and given the fact that importation will, according to the Congressional Budget Office and the Commerce Department hardly make a dent in health care spending?
Because some people can't understand that there are benefits to having a free and global market for medicines and that such conditions are not inconsistent with a bi-partisan effort to improve the FDA's ability to track and trace the production of such goods.
Now that's hypocrisy for you.
From that august body:
"The Food and Drug Administration should be embarrassed by its lack of attention to the ingredients in prescription drugs.
The latest evidence is the 19 deaths and hundreds of allergic reactions reported by Americans using a bad batch of the drug thinner heparin. Some ingredients were contaminated, and the FDA admitted violating its own rules by not inspecting the Chinese factory where they were made.
This at the same time the FDA stubbornly refuses to allow cheaper prescription drugs to be imported. What hypocrisy."
http://www.hollandsentinel.com/stories/040808/opinion_20080408035.shtml
Some truth is in order by way of Andy von Eschenbach, FDA Commish:
"Our records at FDA indicated that we had inspected that facility in China, but that was incorrect. The inspection records we reviewed were on a facility with a very similar name. But having done the inspection in 2004 probably wouldn’t have prevented this problem, because this chemical contaminant cannot be detected using the standard testing methods for heparin. We have now developed new test methods to screen heparin for this new contaminant and regulators around the world are using those tests to protect their citizens. "
http://www.fda.gov/oc/vonEschenbach/andys_take/lifecycle.html
So much for the canard that the FDA "lied". What do you call a paper that calls someone else a liar when it knows that the very statement is not factual?
Now as to "hypocrisy", why would the FDA allow the importation of drugs from companies that are not producing for the US market when it's first priority is to improve the monitoring of the supply and production chain of products that are approved for US sale and distribution? Why indeed given the fact that counterfeit products are a growing problem worldwide and given the fact that importation will, according to the Congressional Budget Office and the Commerce Department hardly make a dent in health care spending?
Because some people can't understand that there are benefits to having a free and global market for medicines and that such conditions are not inconsistent with a bi-partisan effort to improve the FDA's ability to track and trace the production of such goods.
Now that's hypocrisy for you.
