Just how in the hell did this happen?
Americans have already died from Chinese drugs.
Soon nearly all drugs sold in the U.S. will be made in India and China.
This from the Washington Post:
Analysts estimate that as much as 20 percent of finished generic and over-the-counter drugs, and more than 40 percent of the active ingredients for pills made here, come from India and China. Within 15 years, they predict, as much as 80 percent of the key ingredients will come from those countries -- which are quickly becoming attractive to brand-name drugmakers, too.
Meanwhile the Chinese government stamps out freedom of speech, a cornerstone of good government, and vital to the proper regulation of food and drug safety.
When greed is the primary motivating force of the U.S. government public safety is put on the back shelf.
2 comments:
This seems almost conspiratorial when you consider just a couple years ago how sternly we were warned against going to Canada to buy prescription drugs. This warning was particularly aimed at senior citizens trying to get a better deal. The people issuing those warnings sure seem to have shut up lately. Why the silence, people? What is so consuming your time and energy?
In each case the drug companies win.
First they make sure you can't buy their drugs at a lower price by going outside the little system they've arranged for U.S. customers - highest prices in the world.
Then they import their ingredients from the cheapest suppliers possible despite any concerns about safety.
They cut their cost, and fix their prices - what a system.
You know I don't hate China, or India. I'm sure I've bought drugs made by them before. I'm just concerned that no one tells us these things until they've already become so out of hand that we have no choice in the matter.
According to the Washington Post article the FDA inspected just fifteen (15!) Chinese drugs manufacturers last year!
These aren't the random unannounced inspections U.S. manufacturers are used to.
The fix is in! Our government is complicit with industries in the U.S. to avoid health and safety regulations by simply moving operations offshore.
China is still run by dictators, and they have not been able to stem a tidal wave of corruption which allows shoddy manufacturers to produce unsafe goods - for example toys with lead paint.
China's air pollution is so bad that hundreds of thousands of people die each year from it. They're water is rapidly being polluted, and they're running out of water in some locations.
The freedom needed for citizens to fight against the insanity which is plaguing China simply doesn't exist yet. We're all hoping that the people in charge will give in to what they realize is best for China - allowing democratic processes to help solve their growing problems - but we don't really know if/or even when this will happen.
It's the 1890's in China - the age of ruthless capitalism right now.
I feel sorry for them because communism destroyed their economy for over half a century, and kept an incredibly industrious people living in poverty.
They have already moved the equivalent of the U.S. population into a middle class standard of living, but there is an ocean of poor people living in China, and their leaders are ignoring the consequences of rapid industrialization to increase their standard of living.
Still, we need to help them move in the right direction by enforcing our own standards upon them where we can.
We're limited to rejecting their goods if they are unsafe - and because of ideology, and political corruption here in the U.S. we don't even inspect but a small portion of imported goods.
Once the current regime (Bush) is history we need (Republican or Democrat) to hire more FDA inspectors, more consumer safety inspectors, and inspect far more imported goods coming from China, and other nations.
I also believe we can help industries to regulate themselves better, but we can't leave it up to private industry to do the job by themselves.
JP
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