Article Source: msnbc.com
from:msnbc.comFake Avastin sends docs scrambling to check records
Seeded on Wed Feb 15, 2012 6:12 PM EST (msnbc.com)
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If we don't vote correctly in November, we risk losing our last line of defense against things like this. All the ranting about shrinking government and starving vital agencies ignores the dangers. In a world where profit is king, we need a line of defense against the thieves who would steal our health just to make a profit.
Past Congresses have seen fit to hamstring and neuter the FDA of much of its regulating and enforcement strength through the denial of operating funding. The Leaches of "K Street" better known as LOBBYISTS, who surround Washington like a flock of Buzzards on a dead carcass, have been very effective in limiting the effectiveness of our Cop on the Beat, the FDA. Large Agra Businesses, Pharma companies, Fish and Seafood Importers to name a few don't want the American People to really know what goes into the products they are consuming. It's as simple as that.
Those countries mentioned in the article PLUS China (how could we forget them) will take advantage of our lax system and shove every dangerous or toxic filled product down our throats as long as they AND those here in this country let them get away with it! The article mentions that up to 80 percent of chemicals (precursor) drugs come from third world countries. It is a fact, for instance, that of all the Acetaminophen products being sold in the U.S. only Tylenol makes their product with U.S. manufactured components here! The fishermen along the Eastern Seaboard and the Gulf Coast purchased quantities of seafood from stores in many areas along the coast which was labeled "Imported" and sent all the samples to an independent lab for analysis. The findings were not only troubling but outright disgusting as to what was found in the meat. The same chemicals found in fish tanks to keep fish alive PLUS Antibiotics! Asian produced, farmed fish was filthy. Your government has done as much as possible to keep you as UNSAFE as possible thanks to Corporate influence controlling what you put into your body.
Why is it that counterfeiting drugs -- which is life-threatening as well as grand larceny -- gets a lighter punishment than counterfeiting money, which is after all only money? If Congress can ever work enough hours in a week to actually get something useful done, maybe they should address this one. We have no idea how much Medicare and Medicaid money is paying caviar prices for sugar pills.
It should be charged as attempted murder, because that's what it is. No one knows what effect this could have on a person's treatment, and without tougher sentences the problem will only get worse, and more people will be harmed. Disgusting how easily people are willing to risk people's lives for profit.
I challenge anyone of you who have cancer to try one level teaspoon baking soda in large glass of water . every 2 hours you will have 10 thousand times better results than any meds out their. what we need for all health is here seek and yea shall find.
Why don't you go smell some car exaust? It will deliver you from suffering much faster.
OMG, you can buy pot anywhere and I haven't heard of fake weed in a long time. The quality has gone up not down. Crystal meth varies in quality but is generally as good as they can make it, as it is more addictive the more pure it is. You wouldn't expect quality from criminals but there it is. I don't use street drugs (I take Seroquel, an anti-psychotic, which is over $900.00 a month) but I would take them over an internet pharmacy any day. To have to worry about getting a fake at a real pharmacy is just intolerable. If I got fake Plavix, I would be in serious trouble.
If you never heard of street drugs adulteration doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Adulterated heroin kills. Adulterated marijuana is also causing problems. The reasn is the same: profit.
There was a time when people stole to feed themselves. That was considered a necessity for some. Now people steal and cheat simply because of greed. Greed to buy fancy cars, jewels, ipads, iphones, LED TV etc. Greedy people don't feel guilty until they see what it does to others. Stories like these are important, but it should also tell what kind of damage it does to innocent people.
When you read how easy it is to do and how much money is to be made, this story sort of encourages you to start one.
"British regulators notified the FDA about the products in December, but the agency didn't confirm they were fake until last week."
The FDA shouldv'e made this public in December. Idiots!
They didn't want us importing drugs cheaply from Canada because of "Quality Concerns" but now we are getting screwed right over the counter here in the U.S.
Boy I'm glad they're keeping such a tight lid on the "Quality Concerns" here and it makes it just sooooo worth the money we pay.
Um no, counterfeiting happens BECAUSE these medications are coming from outside the US. They make their way here from other countries via the unregulated internet pharmacy industry, and black/grey market distributors.
You missed the point entirely.
Time to replace FDA
Where's Ron Paul?
Too bad Rick Perry lost out. He'd have "eliminated the FDA and the ..um...ah...brain fart, give me a minute here....ummm....aaaah and those other two"
FDA is not using the latest techologies in tracking down imports from 'suspect'countries- but it is the drug importers/warehousers/distributors who are intentionally putting people at risk of becoming a fatality of counterfeit medicine (rx at that)What was bot mentioned is that Turkey is one of those countries whose meds are counterfeir- 'cheaper European' label for a non-European country. Turkey's Altuzabn is no US Genentech Avastin. Other legitimate,licensed,oversight abiding companies whose meds are also being counterfitted are Eli Lilly&Co,Celgene Corp.,Amgen,Inc, and Novartis AG. The very lives of patients are at risk- fatally at times- and US Congress/Obama adm are discussing the meaning of the word contra- ception.
This is a truly despicable crime that should carry the most severe penalties. The charlatans conducting this activity should also be sentenced to receiving only placebo drugs for any illness they incur.
The real criminals here are the physicians who bought from Montana Healthcare. They either did not do due diligence in checking out the credentials of the company OR, worse, they did know the shady nature and chose to buy anyway because of $$. The insurance company pays a set amount for the treatment, so whatever amount the physician saves in the cost of the drug is money in his pocket. Disgusting! I hope the patients get lawyers.
The FDA needs to do more to eliminate these third-party distributors. The activities of these companies are what contribute to drug shortages (sometimes made worse by buying up stock from hospitals - then price gouging) and import of counterfeit drugs.
Yet another benefit of "off shoring". Those greedy American workers. (sarcasm)
As long as US corporations put executive and investor compensation ahead of their country, this sort of thing will continue.
Not sure how you came to that conclusion based on this story. This was about how easy it is for foreign-made fake drugs to get into the healthcare system. So, this story is basically pointing out the holes in the US healthcare supply chain. That anything legitimate is manufactured "off-shore" is irrelevant.
Like BoomerBroad said in the post above, the physicians who used the distributor in question are the ones at fault. They chose to buy from a non-authorized distributor, at the risk of their patient's lives.
My husband died of colon cancer. In the story, it states that missing "one treatment" probably wouldn't do any harm. What???? When he was in treatment, it was stressed over and over to us that he could not miss any treatment, not even one, if we expected the Avastin to work. So we had to keep his immune system up and make sure he didn't get sick with a cold or flu or lose too much weight, et cetera. Because all of those things could cause him to be unable to get a chemo treatment. So I wonder now why this story is stating the direct opposite from what we were told then. Also, I am a breast cancer survivor who also was told not to miss any chemo treatments because the cancer can "learn" how to make an end run around the chemo if any treatments were skipped. So I think these doctors quoted are merely trying to cover their asses.