The Swine Line

Each day brings more alarming news ($) related to counterfeit pharmaceuticals and problems with certifying the provenance of chemical compounds being used in phramaceuticals.  Keep these kinds ($) of stories in mind whenever your member of Congress starts telling you what a great idea it is to allow the legal importation of drugs from outside of the U.S. 

Ask those drug importation proponents how our Food & Drug Administration (FDA) is supposed to guarantee the safety and efficacy of drugs being manufactured abroad with ingredients that come from….well, who knows.  

Aside from huge stumbling blocks related to sovereignty and legal authority, think about the potential costs of having the FDA attempting to police the quality of pharnaceuticals manufactured in, say, China.  This graph from an October 9th WSJ article speaks volumes:

The current alarm over toxic drugs, toiletries and toys from China could pose a marketing challenge to China’s would-be generics-export industry. For the past year, China’s own drug regulatory agency, the State Food and Drug Administration, has been embroiled in a corruption investigation, culminating in the execution of its former chief, Zheng Xiaoyu, in July for taking bribes to speed drug approvals, the same month Huahai won its FDA approval.

In spring 2006, five people died after taking injections of a medicine made by Qiqihar No. 2 Pharmaceutical Co. To save money, the company had used diethylene glycol — the same chemical that the FDA said recently might be in toothpaste produced in China.

  

Drug importation is not a a “cure” for anything.  It is a potential disaster.       

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119187230072652477.html?mod=sphere_ts (subscribtion required).