Barbara Navarro/February 1, 2008//Heath issues
Beijing where a huge state owned Chinese pharmaceutical company that exports to dozens of company all over, including the United States. They are now under investigation of sending out tainted drugs that is believe to have harmed over 200 cancer patients last summer. These tainted drugs were thought to have caused some of these patients to be paralyzed and cause other harmful effects to them.
Chinese drug regulators have accused the manufacturer of covering up the tainted drugs. They believe that was why they closed the factory down. This investigation started in December, said the Chinese Food and Drug Administration. They began a criminal investigation on two officials, which also included the head of the plant.
This company, Shanghai Hualina is the sole supplier to the United States of the abortion pill, mifepristone, known as RU-486. It is made at a different factory from the one that produced the tainted drugs.
They have not been able to link any thing between the two drugs as far as being tainted. The Food and Drug Administration has declined to answer any questions on this matter because of security reason at this point.
In the last two years many people around the world has died from contaminated drugs and drug ingredients that was produced in China. The investigation of the contaminated cancer drugs comes from China trying to restore confidence in its tattered regulatory system. Last year China executed its top drug safety official for accepting bribes to approve drugs.
Pfizer declined to buy drug ingredients from Shanghai Pharmaceutical Group in 2006 because of quality related issues, quoted Spokes person Christopher Loder for Pfizer. Even up to this date the company still has not met the standard for Pfizer to consider using the company’s ingredients.
The abortion pill was first started in France since. The marketer of the pill was never revealed because of the anti-abortion movement. The F.D.A. approved the anti-abortion pill in 2000 in the United States. Danco Laboratories is the company that distributes the pill to the United States. This company has not web address and has not returned phone calls made to them.
What is bad about this, this is not the first time that problems have come from this company. There has been other issues and mistakes made by this company that has put people’s lives and health at risk. This article mentions two occasions of mixed ups in 2002 where drugs has to be stop from coming into the U.S. One was an unproved antibiotic and the other was a diuretic that had “false or misleading information labeling.’
We all depend on medicines to help us in one way or the other. Is it safe for us to have our medicines imported in from other countries and what are the risks of this? Would this be a way that terrorist could get to us? When someone is producing something as important as medical supplies they should be as more care and precautions in these areas. I feel someone is playing with a person or people lives when they don’t take it as a serious thing and put out a bad product. To put out a bad product such as a bad pair of jeans, is much different than considering the quality of someone’s health.
Maybe we should keep certain things such as something as serious as medical supplies at home or put that care of producing these products into a company that has the best interest of the people at hand. To me this is an area that the laws and regulations should be looked into. Not so sure of what they are myself, but it is worth looking into.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/31/world/asia/31pharma.html?ref=health
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