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Tainted ingredients from — guess where? — turn up in drugs
By Gina Spadafori
January 31, 2008
I wonder if food safety would be an issue in the presidential campaign if the tainted Chinese ingredients were killing thousands of pets this year instead of last? Would the candidates “get” the canary in the coal mine issue?
From the morning’s NY Times:
A huge state-owned Chinese pharmaceutical company that exports to dozens of countries, including the United States, is at the center of a nationwide drug scandal after nearly 200 Chinese cancer patients were paralyzed or otherwise harmed last summer by contaminated leukemia drugs.
Chinese drug regulators have accused the manufacturer of the tainted drugs of a cover-up and have closed the factory that produced them.
Here’s the rest. I’ll add more to this thread as the caffeine hits .
I had a case of some fruity protein drink thing in the garage. The manufacturer was unresponsive about where the “protein” powder came from.
I emptied the drinks and recycled the bottles. Seemed like a good idea a few months ago, and it still does.
***
Related: Patrick at Terrierman sent me a link to this NYT piece from a couple days ago. China’s Wild West capitalism is killing their own people, but the Chinese government has to fix that. Our government needs to protect us, and it isn’t.
I like the Terrierman’s solution: “Require that all of Congress, all of the folks at the FDA, and everyone in the Administration must only use Chinese-made drugs, medical devices and pet foods.” I’d personally extend that to all imports from countries that don’t have good standards, and figure we’d either get a fix to the problem or have some sudden openings to fill with people who can fix the problems.
The NYT article:
The Food and Drug Administration is so understaffed that, at its current pace, the agency would need at least 27 years to inspect every foreign medical device plant that exports to the United States, 13 years to check every foreign drug plant and 1,900 years to examine every foreign food plant, according to government investigators.
Computer systems at the drug agency are so inadequate that it can only guess the number of the plants, and it cannot produce a list of those that have not been inspected. The situation is particularly dire in China, which has more drug and device plants than any other foreign nation but where F.D.A. inspections are few.
These findings come from a series of reports by the Government Accountability Office — obtained by The New York Times — scheduled to be released Tuesday at a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
The reports and a recent assessment by the agency’s Science Board conclude that the F.D.A. is so overwhelmed by a flood of imports that it is incapable of protecting the public from unsafe drugs, medical devices and food.
Here’s the rest. And people think I’m crazy for ordering pet chickens … at least I’ll know where my eggs come from.
Why is this not an issue in the presidential campaign? Geez, even the candidates have to eat!
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Meanwhile downer cows are should being dragged into a domestic slaughterhouse. I don’t think it is just the Chinese ingrediants that need scrutiny.
Comment by emily — January 31, 2008 @ 7:41 am
should=shown (bad typing, sorry)
Comment by emily — January 31, 2008 @ 7:41 am
Oh I absolutely agree! But … it’s easier to choose (or choose to avoid) something that has just one ingredient, like a piece of meat (excepting, of course, ground meat).
But a processed food … a drug … heaven knows where all the ingredients came from, or their quality.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — January 31, 2008 @ 8:34 am
I read the Wall Street Health Blog.
India as well as China are now making drugs for the big American drug companies, Pfizer included.
I am afraid to take vitamins, even though it is recommended. I do not know where the ingredients come from.
Also, I might add, whenever I go to a flea market, the retail stores, the supermarket, it is quite common to find products made elsewhere.
I am quite suprised to see made in America. The item is usually top quality.
Comment by Colorado Transplant — January 31, 2008 @ 8:43 am
I meant to write the “The Wall Street Journal Health Blog” (left off Journal).
Comment by Colorado Transplant — January 31, 2008 @ 8:50 am
Anyone wondering (along with me) where all those “$4 per prescription” drugs from Wal-Mart are coming from . . . . . ?
Comment by The OTHER Pat — January 31, 2008 @ 9:20 am
Unfortunately its going to take something like what happened in China to finally get the public and our government to pay attention to what’s going on. Thousands of animals killed and no one cares. Only when a couple hundred people die will anyone pay attention.
And I expect our government in collusion with the drug companies will try to dispute that anything unusual is going on. That is of course unless the new President, Democrat or Republican, has a full housecleaning at the FDA.
But with the war in Iraq, and the US economy in shambles, I’m not holding my breath….
Comment by 2CatMom — January 31, 2008 @ 10:21 am
Months ago I saw a program (Dateline I think) about fake drugs being sold in drugstores. One woman died because she was being sold (at hundreds of $$$ each) a cancer drug that was fake even though it looked real. The packaging looked the same; everything looked to be as it should. Evidently there’s quite a complicated supply “chain” for prescription drugs in the US - not just imported ones either. One of the reporters was able to buy fake drugs easily to import. Reassuring isn’t it?
Saw an article in The Atlanta Journal that Georgia is now soliciting Chinese companies to locate here. Naturally they will be given “incentives” paid for with my tax dollars. We export our jobs overseas and then pay other countries to bring them back? If this makes sense please explain it to me because the whole process has me dumbfounded. Exactly how cheap are these overseas goods? Sounds like a lot of hidden costs to me.
Comment by Carol — January 31, 2008 @ 11:00 am
Am also considering starting my own chicken coop this spring. I’m allowed three hens in my city. It’s not crazy, fresh eggs are delicious.
July of 2007 the EPA posted a warning about counterfeit flea medications coming from overseas and not inspected by their agency. I ran across it because I was doing research on flea medications for my dog. The packaging looks like US packaging but dosages have been wrong and dog meds were being put in cat boxes. The FDA and USDA aren’t the only ones with problems. The EPA can’t catch all this stuff either.
Comment by C.L.H. — January 31, 2008 @ 3:18 pm
Ok - let me get this straight - we peons of American society can’t order cheap drugs from other countries like Canada on our own because we can’t tell if we are getting the real thing; however our government will allow drug companies or hospitals to import bad drugs in to poison us.
Comment by Cheryl — January 31, 2008 @ 4:22 pm
Cheryl—the American drug companies might not make a full profit if we import drugs from Canada. Don’t you have sympathy for them?
Comment by Colorado Transplant — February 1, 2008 @ 5:32 am
Brandy is okay now, and is recovering nicely.
She will get her pain meds. starting tomorrow.
Comment by Colorado Transplant — February 1, 2008 @ 12:45 pm
Watch online Yap Films PET FOOD: A DOG’S BREAKFAST
http://www.cbc.ca/doczone/dogsbreakfast.html
The film has been uploaded here: http://isohunt.com/torrents/d7.....239a93e10f
or
http://isohunt.com/torrent_details/32455297/dogs
You may first need to download Azureus Vuze and Java Runtime Enviornment or (uTorrent) to view the film.
http://azureus.sourceforge.net/
Then go back to 2nd link above and click download .torrent
At 410MB, it may take awhile to download the program depending on your computer.
It’s worth the wait!
Comment by wolfdogged — February 2, 2008 @ 10:59 am