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China’s Poison Medicines: What Are We Supposed To Do?

By SusanUnPC on September 16, 2007 at 5:55 PM in Food Safety/FDA

I am f–king furious. I have to take a lot of drugs, almost all generic, and I have to trust that those criminal — and I do mean criminal — drug and OTC medication manufacturers in China aren’t poisoning me? What if one of the drugs I’ve taken is responsible for my excruciating leg pain? See this, and there’s another shocker below the fold:

China recalls tainted leukemia drugs

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN
Associated Press Writer

BEIJING — Chinese authorities ordered the recall of tainted leukemia drugs blamed for leg pains and other problems, state media reported Sunday, the latest crisis to strike the country’s embattled food and drug industries. … Read all.

Yesterday’s Seattle Post-Intelligencer featured an op-ed, “In trade, China’s moral compass is off course,” by Chi-Dooh Li, a Seattle attorney. It is a must-read in its entirety, but I’ll just quote the section about drugs — and it should scare you as much as it does me:

Chinese pharmaceutical companies have sold fake polio vaccines, blood protein and other drugs. International health authorities are understandably alarmed, considering that China makes 70 percent of the world’s supply of penicillin, 50 percent of its aspirin and 35 percent of its acetaminophen, and dominates the global market in vitamins. Chinese companies have even sold fake baby formula, resulting in numerous infant deaths. …

Read all.

Emphasis mine.

How in the hell are we supposed to know which drugs and over-the-counter medications are safe?

President Bush has steadily starved our federal safety agencies (FDA, etc.) of both the budget and staffing they desperately need just to be able to inspect a tiny fraction of these imports. At best, currently, only 1% of all imports are being inspected. We cannot trust any of the manufacturing plants in other countries.

I want — I demand — American-made medications. (I realize that American manufacturers have had their own problems, but I trust them more than I do overseas manufacturers.) But how in the hell do I even know where my medications are made? How does my pharmacist know? How does my doctor know he’s prescribing a properly-made medication?

How do we know that ALL of the ingredients of a drug are safe? So many “precursors” are now manufactured overseas. For example, the “precursors” for commonly-prescribed antibiotics are now almost all made in China.

Here’s an example. I bought TwinLabs’ multiple vitamin/mineral, more expensive than most, because historically it has been a very fine brand. My vitamins are made in Utah. But — and I called the Utah manufacturer to find out — the Vitamin C that is in my multiple pill comes entirely from China. What is in that Vitamin C? How do I know it is not adulterated, or that it is the correct strength? Does TwinLabs test every single lot of Vitamin C they import? Can I believe their assurances? How can I know when I read examples like this from the P.I. op-ed piece?

Chinese-made toothpaste containing diethylene glycol was exported under brand names such as “Mr. Cool.” The toothpaste is marketed to children.

[...]

Chinese food producers have used formaldehyde, industrial wax and banned toxic dyes in making candy, pickles and crackers. Foods with long expired shelf life are repackaged and sold as fresh. Many of those products are exported and sold in the U.S.

Where do we turn to find out that not only the whole product — but each ingredient in the product — is safe? I haven’t a clue.

  • http://noquarterusa.net/blog/ Leslie

    Wouldn’t it be nice if the FDA were doing its job? We can’t lay this entirely at China’s doorstep.

    • http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC

      I’ve written about this elsewhere, but the FDA cannot do its job. Put aside its coziness with drug manufacturers. Just consider that it doesn’t have anywhere near the budget or staffing it needs.

      The Consumer Product Safety Commission is another starved agency. They have FOUR inspectors — total — to inspect the millions of children’s toys and other consumer products imported into the U.S.

      Something radical, and big, needs to be done. If we’re stuck with importing c-r-a-p from these other countries, we deserve to know that the products have been inspected.

      Another personal example: I’ve been buying and using a lot of heating pads. They’re all made in China. They cost a lot. They’re about $30-40 each. They last, at most, 4-5 months. Then they just quit. Well, it begins with some of the heat settings no longer working, and then none of the heat settings work. It also worries me that they’ll malfunction and cause a fire. (I could go back to just hot water bottles, but they’re very uncomfortable to lie on.)

      Yes, I return the heating pads, but it’s a big hassle for me at this point. Sometimes it’s flat-out impossible for me to make the trip to return them. I need a product that is reliable and will last. Time was when heating pads lasted for years and years.

  • RAN

    You’re furious, and so am I. Remember this anger when you determine who you are ultimately going to support in the ’08 election. Some Democratic candidates take money from the pharms and insurance companies.

    The Bush regime targeted all government agencies; all had a bullseye on them. The object was to gut them, weaken them, defund them in order to prove that government doesn’t work.

    China is a godsend to corporations and a fiasco to humans. The biggest corporate names, the ones with the friendliest, funniest, most charming commercials on TV are semi-secretly, stealthily conducting big business in China. Slave labor, slave wages, dirtying the planet, using poisons in drugs and lead in children’s toys. None of them really care; profit is all that matters.

    I, too, took a drug recently that caused horrible pain, and now I wonder if I was poisoned.

    Damn all of them.

    • Fred C. Dobbs

      >>> The Bush regime targeted all government agencies; all had a bullseye on them. The object was to gut them, weaken them, defund them in order to prove that government doesn’t work.

      No, they are just continuing the Good Works of Saint Ronnie, aka, The Addled Puppet Reagan, who made it a priority to, “…get the government off businesses’ backs.”

      Among his more memorable acomplishments was to halve the number of FDA inspectors in meat plants. Within six months, the number of reported cases of nastiness like e coli jumped right up.

      Then, of course, the Reagan Administration allowed the Dirt Bankers (savings and loans) to have their way, exceed the scope of their intended businesses and proceed to completely fuck over that industry with insider lending and incredibly poor business decisions, due to both stupidity and mendacity. And stuck the taxpaters (via Resolution Trust) with the tab. You might ask McCain about his buddy Charles Keating’s part of this particular action.

      See also: Neil Bush; read INSIDE JOB

      Shrubbie and the boys couldn’t have thought all this up. The bulk of those geldings, misfits and perverts couldn’t organize a circle jerk. This is a continuation of the, “conservative” agenda predating Nixon, simply unfettered.

      Please try to remember that Goldwater wanted to sell the Tennessee Valley Authority to private industry in 1963…if your sense of history is sharp enough.

      How could one have had an IQ higher than room temperature and read a newpaper at least once per quarter for the last 25 years NOT anticipated this?

  • lidia

    was USA government recalling selebrex that caused DEATH? It was not made in China, as far as I know

    • http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC

      There are plenty examples of U.S. failures, for sure.

      But Celebrex’s problem wasn’t that the drug’s ingredients were fake or adulterated but that the drug had serious side effects for a tiny fraction of people.

      My aunt still takes Celebrex because nothing else helps her arthritic pain nearly as much. She SWEARS by Celebrex. She wishes I could take it, but I haven’t brought it up with the doctors. Will see, after my surgery, if i still need the help with pain.

      But if I had chronic joint pain like my aunt, I’d be willing to risk the small potential for death just to have days that are less consumed by pain.

      • Bill Keyes

        Susan
        I just started taking Celebex again and it helps me a lot. I have a very conservative doctor who doesn’t prescribe any drugs unless he is sure there are no side effects that my affect me. So I guess a key element is a doctor you can trust.

        Instead of just prescribing a drug and saying call me if you have a problem he monitors any side effects with additional bloodwork and then makes sure I get a physical at least every three-six months.

        Good luck with it if you decide to try it. The other problem is that it’s expensive which is a whole another story.

        • http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC

          I’m so glad it’s helping you, Bill. Boy, if it eases your pain, it is worth it. And the small % of side effects doesn’t seem nearly as dangerous as other commonly prescribed medications like Prednisone and other steroids.

          It sounds like you have a terrific doctor who is cognizent of the side effects and takes measures to shepherd your taking of Celebrex — as should be done with all drugs that have a potential, no matter how small, for side effects.

      • lidia

        “But Celebrex’s problem wasn’t that the drug’s ingredients were fake or adulterated but that the drug had serious side effects for a tiny fraction of people.”

        No, the problem was that the firm LIED about “serious side effects” (“However, during the study researchers discovered that patients taking high doses of Celebrex were 2.4 times more likely to develop heart disease than patients on placebo”) and USA drug administration did NOTHING to prevent death.

        “However, while the exact side effects of the different drugs may be unclear, there is nothing confusing about the history of COX-2 inhibitors. Many scientists have warned of potential problems with this class of drug for years, without provoking any response from the FDA to seriously investigate potential health problems. Evidence indicates that the drug companies, particularly Merck, worked assiduously to cover up damaging results in order to keep sales at extraordinarily high levels. [See “The Vioxx recall: cover-up of health risks may have resulted in thousands of deaths” http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/nov2004/viox-n10.shtml

        COX-2 inhibitors were originally developed as a class of drugs that would treat arthritis and inflammation without causing gastrointestinal bleeding, a side effect some patients experience with the use of other anti-inflammatory drugs, including ibuprofen and naproxen. They are supposed to work by blocking one enzyme, COX-2, that is thought to cause inflammation, without blocking another enzyme, COX-1, thought to protect the stomach lining.

        However, the number of patients that suffer serious side effects from the use of the other drugs is fairly small, numbering in the tens of thousands. The drug companies wanted to—and did—turn the drugs into blockbusters, used by tens of millions of people around the world.”

        And then

        “While COX-2 inhibitors may have important uses for some patients, their mass promotion was entirely unnecessary. Not only did purchasing these drugs cost patients billions in medical expenses, tens of thousands may have needlessly died due to the drugs’ harmful side effects.

        The success of the drugs was only possible with the help of the FDA and the decline of regulation of the drug industry. The explosion in drug advertising, particularly in direct-to-consumer advertising, was only possible after regulatory changes implemented during the late 1990s.

        The FDA’s Office of New Drugs (OND), which is responsible for approving drugs for the market, has been greatly expanded at the expense of the sections of the FDA responsible for monitoring the safety of drugs already on the market. At the same time, the OND has been made more dependent on the industry it is supposed to regulate. Indeed, much of the office’s funding comes directly from the drug industry, in the form of fees intended to speed up the drug approval process. Both Vioxx and Celebrex were approved after expedited reviews, even though little was known about their potential benefits and side effects.

        Some FDA scientists have alleged that they were pressured to bury findings that suggested problems with drugs already on the market. One survey found that one-fifth of scientists at the FDA said they felt pressure to approve a new drug despite concerns about safety, effectiveness or quality.”

        China had nothing to do with it.

  • WhattheH

    I’ve never commented before, but this is one area that comes home to roost with me and mine because of allergies – a topic which does not seem to be getting as much attention as it should in this whole fiasco. I am an older woman who had her children very late. My allergies are the regular old run of the mill dust and mould, and they are controllable. My children, and the grandchildren of my siblings are far more severe and in certain cases debilitating. For example, my daughter has celiacs disease, has an allergy to a natural hormone in most protein food sources ergo, she cannot drink milk, cannot eat fish, meat, poultry, eggs etc. Yes, she is extreme, however, there are more people being diagnosed with these types of allergies today than ever before. My daughter had to go through extensive testing to finally get a diagnosis (lack of reasearch? lack of education?), which is evolving even today. She has suffered arthritis symptoms, internal bleeding, extensive pain in her limbs and joints, and near death asphyxsia – she was 18 when it manifested (although Doctors think it was a long term destruction), and is twenty-one today. At first, I blamed myself. I had tried to ensure they had a good diet, even though their other parent had taken them to fast food outlets every day. I’ve done a lot of investigation since then, and the state of the food supply is deplorable as witness Jacok Kreutzfeld disease and other rather nasty offshoots.
    SusanUnPc, I’m assuming that you’ve had extensive allergy tests. If not, insist on getting them. To my mind, this is an environmental problem brought about by the total disregard by Corporations in pursuit of profits to the total disregard of the health and safety of the consumers, and by the government abrogating it’s responsibilities to it’s electorate in the pursuit of power and money. It’s not surprising really when you couple that with the obscenity of the middle east misadventure which has cost over an estimated million lives. one wonders which of those lives could have discovered the cure for cancer, could have invented a viable space exploration device, could have ….What a mess and what an obscene time in which we live

  • WhattheH

    Sorry, long diatribe to indicate that you are very correct in your concern about the quality of anything that you put in your mouth or breathe these days. As mentioned, it’s close to my heart.

  • mudkitty

    What are we supposed to do when all we want is a bargain?

  • Canuck Stuck in Muck

    First, I’m outraged that there’s a possibility your pain could be caused by a Chinese entrepreneur with no conscience. Second, I’m concerned that you might be right in thinking it. Third, our laissez-faire government ought to be ashamed of itself for allowing unregulated drugs to appear in our marketplace. Thank-you, FDA (read: Bush’s cronies). Thank-you, Democratic Congress (for your phony oversight of late). Thank-you, the 50 million or so who voted for Bush in the first place. Thank-you, Barbara, for creating a son like the one in the White HOuse. You all ought to be ashamed of yourselves. And Susan, I hope you get better real soon. Love,
    Rob

    • WhattheH

      Nothing should be distributed on this continent without being vetted. Anyone who wants money will foist whatever on an unsuspecting /uneducated public. That is where the government, to my mind, is supposed to represent it’s constituents. The government should be setting quality standards, both internally and externally, and if those standards are not met, should block the distribution of products. In order to perform this vital job, the government should have a functioning group of watchdog groups that have multiple functions that include testing to standards and the ability to shutdown import/export of products/services that do not meet the standards. By the way, standards should be set based on scientific not Corporate objectives. I believe that we used to have that group of watchdogs. Sadly, they are no longer, and we are looking at the results…..On another topic – although related because it’s corporately driven – the Northwest passage is free of ice for the first time in history and countries are now fighting about which one has dominance. As a result, the polar bears will be extinct, but not one county is stepping up to the possible (nay probable) impacts of that. Sad, ain’t it.

  • Bill Keyes

    “In the harshest action so far, the country’s former top drug regulator was executed in July for taking millions of dollars in bribes to approve substandard medicines, including an antibiotic that killed at least 10 people.”

    Now isn’t that just a novel way of dealing with crooks…..executing them??

    It wouldn’t work well here because after all the executions there wouldn’t be anyone left to take any bribes.

  • Detroit Sam

    The drug cartel and the Bush administration do not want Americans to travel to Canada to purchase prescription drugs at a much lower cost. They claim to be concerned that the drugs purchased in Canada, though shipped there from the US, might not be of the quality.

    Remember same drugs from US manufacturers that are shipped to distributors in Canada.

    But yet these same companies are importing tainted drugs from China.

    Short of calling every US manufacturer to question the source of each ingredient in their vitamins, OTC products or prescription drugs, is there a source where we can check to see where these products are really made?

  • Dee Loralei

    Susan,

    I have lived with constant, chronic pain for the better part of the last two decades. My son will be 17 next month, and 3 weeks after his birth I developed a blood clot, and it tore through my left hip and did all sorts of nerve damage. Your’s sounds worse. And I am so sorry.

    The first year, I had a callous Internist who did not beleive in pain. (My OB-GYN group also turned their backs on me, because to deal with this consequence of birth, they’d have to admit that they didn’t diagnose me correctly.)

    About 15 months after my blood clot, I finally hooked up with a real healer. He prescribed for me the TN legal limits for Schedule 1 controlled substances, but he left it up to me to dose myself. That means some days I took 5 or 6 pills, other days I took 1 or 2. He put me in control of my own pain. And that was a major gift.

    The one thing I needed at that time was some control, any sort of control of my own life. One day I told him, “I can’t control my husband or my pain or my child, but I took my dog to service dog training, and that actually helped me regain control of my life.”

    I had dominance over one thing, and that made all the difference. And she was a great dog. I told my son she was his older sister, because I loved her first. I’ve never told him she saved my life. And she did, my darling Paisley. This was around the time Jack Kevorkian was making news, and I said that I could understand why some people would turn to him. Because, honestly, had I gone a few more months, without any help, I would have gone the Kevorkian route. I understood that Kevorkian was neccessary. And that terrified me.

    I discovered yoga and meditation and got addicted to self-help books and herbal remedies. I discovered Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, Andrew Weil and Marianne Williamson.

    The yoga and the meditation helped me most, other than the control thang. I lost my insurance over a decade ago and quit inflicting my pain on my DR, who has left the area. But has my pain gone? Nah, not hardly, but I have learned to deal with it. I self-medicate with booze and beer and wine. I take too many aspirins and Tylenol. I rant and rail because every other effing country in the world trusts it’s citizens to self-diagnose and self- medicate and prescribe for themselves the neccessary pain meds.

    I’ve also been known to try certain illicit “herbs” to contain my pain.

    Anyway, I hope this helps you and gives you some hope.I had to reach way down within myself to get there. And I didn’t have the internets to hook me up with some like minded people.

    God Bless ya. Susan. Be well.

    Dee

  • Dee Loralei

    And, Susan, to answer the question which headlined you post…. Boycott the Olympics. Tell NBC and it’s advertisers that you will boycott every company that supports a country that kills our pets, puts lead in our childrens toys and dilutes our medicines. They poison our food supply. They buy up our T-Bills and support with inaction this horrid war. We stopped apatheid in South Africa through boycotting of financing. It wasn’t until universities started divesting in South Africa that change occured.

    • http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC

      I don’t plan to watch. And I’m very worried for the athletes having to breathe in that god-awful polluted air. It’s bad enough that I have to breathe China’s pollution on the West Coast, since winds carry it across the Pacific. China’s pollution is also harming the rain forests in the Olympic National Park, which have highly delicate plants that die from exposure to any pollution.

  • Centrocitta

    Americans, I guarantee you that if you looked in your mirror and did not see a face with old looking skin and wrinkles, it would be much easier to forget about the aches and pains for which you must take medicine made in China. Unfortunately, though, Retin A, the only product that works, is not available over the counter in the US as it is in South America and Europe. That’s because Americans have so much freedom and protection from the government babysitters that they will not even allow you to have something that makes you look younger and feel better about yourself without having to give them their greedy take first.

  • rugger9

    Hmmm…

    Since the state controls all aspects of manufacturing in the PRC, why not sue the PRC government? It’s the legal control, and they have the authority and responsibility to ship safe stuff, since I’m sure the language is in the contracts. It’s not really our job (which was intentionally done poorly by Bu$hCo) to be solely responsible to catch the trash, the Chinese had the obligation not to send it in the first place.

    It might take a two-step process, such as we sue the drug makers, who then sue their suppliers and the PRC. Given how much money Big Pharma has stuffed up the GOP tush, this scenario might work because W looks like he’s doing something (for a change), it’s zero-sum at least for Big Pharma, but the Chinese might get PO’d and call in the notes we’ve been using to finance W’s vanity war.

    As far as boycotts, I’m generally not in favor of them, but if this continues, the politics may become too much. We’re going to have to bring in our own food as it is, preferably not by Halliburton contractors.

    Another useful question: are we the only ones getting this crap, or the only ones bitching about it?

    • http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC

      are we the only ones getting this crap, or the only ones bitching about it?

      There are, for starters, the over 100 people in Panama who died after their cough syrup was tainted with diethylene glycol from an ingredient adulterated and exported by the Chinese.

      Countries all over the world are fighting it. The Japanese recently had to recall millions of tubes of toothpaste. I forget the rest of the examples off the top of my head, but they are innumerable, and just as serious.

      The EU and other countries have been far more stringent in rejecting Chinese-made ingredients. South Africa, for example, has banned all ingredients for pet food from China.

      • rugger9

        So, since we are not alone, there ought to be a mechanism either within GATT, WTO, or the G-8 that should be used to bring China to heel.

        Perhaps that’s another reason to buy up all of the T-Bills that W’s been using to finance his vanity war, so we won’t say anything when our citizens are killed for Chinese government greed.

  • apishapa

    And yet, We can’t import drugs from Canada because they might not be safe? Give me a break.

    • GR3

      US Customs at the Canadian border will ask if you’ve bought any prescriptions while in Canada. Happened to us this year.

  • http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC

    A couple practical preventive steps:

    1) Never buy anything at a Dollar-type store. Much of what they sell comes from China, and a lot of it can be fraudulent. E.g., FDA officials recalled thousands of tubes of “Colgate” toothpaste that was a Chinese-factory knock-off of the real Colgate toothpaste.

    2) Never buy anything at Wal-Mart. It’ll hurt the imports from China but it’ll also protect you from lead-tainted paint and tainted foods, most of which are made in China. A lot of the deadliest pet foods, in the recent pet food scandal, came from China.

    3) If you have pets, avoid pet foods with fish. Most of the cheap fish put in food, particularly cat food, comes from China and other countries where the environmental conditions are terrible and the fish are over-dosed with antibiotics, etc. to keep them alive in the filthy tanks in which they spend their lives.

    • GR3

      It’s also hard to find canned smoked oysters that aren’t made in China. I’ve stopped buying them – except for those expensive Washington State smoked oysters!

  • Thinker

    Susan, when I first read this I was about to air the triumphant liberating reply, “so what?”

    But then I remembered it was not too long ago that Leslie raised the flag as to your health issues. To which I saddly responded too late to aid this time round. So I reread my reply and came to the conclusion that, along with being heartless, that “so what?” is draconian and uninformative.

    A number of replies have questioned the wisdom of blaming China. The problem is, Susan, you have been coy in the way you have worded your article, which is fair but unjust. The facts are these. Governments make laws which are protected by policing bodies. Pharmaceuticals are generally given the highest level of protection. I know because I have assisted many pharmaceutical manufacturers (except Pan Pharma….ahem) in their production visibility, Chinese included.

    The issue is the very nature of pharmaceuticals and the very nature of health. Like oil, health is a money making business and drugs are the bottom of the iceberg. Those that manufacture drugs would like a population perpetually dependant on drugs. For instance if someone were to recover from lukemia, then they are a wasted resource. Surely give ‘em leg pains or a pain in the ass and they will be cryin’ for more.

    The guantlet was laid down down with the demise of Royal Rife and in recent times, the systematic dismantling of the British & Australian Nation Health Systems. The powers that be have been itching to impose the American insurance model (kill off the riff raff) on us. And now it is here. National Health is effectively an insurance broker, continually trying to devalue the asset. Interestingly, perscription drugs are only subsidised. I spy a wider conspiracy.

  • Thinker

    Sorry Susan, I cannot resist it. I shall continue…

    There is a reason to beat up on China, but that has little to do with pharamaceuticals. Setting up a manufacturing operation in China (as opposed to…say, the USA or Australia) has been regarded as a good business decision. So we blame China, but is China the USA? That’s the deeper question.

    I digress. I though you might be interested in knowing about……but first…

    Several years ago a man was jailed (or hung, I can’t quite remember) for swallowing a large consignment of heroine. He had had a massive fit on the plane. His defense was he had taken a flight sickness tablet. That tablet was manufactured by Pan Pharmaceuticals, an Australian Company (in Australia). In more recent times Pan Pharmaceuticals has been shut down by the TGA (Therapeutic Goods Association) for the “most unregulated manufacturing processes ever witnessed”.

    For those not in the know, pills consist of the serum and other components. Other components, such as sugar, would represent the larger part of the pill’s makeup. Pan were creating some pills entirely made of serum, and some entirely without. This, of course, could have devestating effects on the consumer (particularly when zero effects are devestating).

    But it gets better Smith Kline Beecham (SKM) also manufacture in Australia. They manufacture currently. They don’t produce for the Australian market. Odd!!!!! They supply the South American market. Odder!!!!!! Hmmmm where do cheapskate Americans buy all their cut price drugs under the counter ;)

    Word of warnin’ SKM have a very small maintenance budget for their manufacturing facilities here. The chiefs are gradually sounding more & more like Bush or Cheney in their commiting zero dollar solutions. I won’t be buying any South American drugs under any conditions.

  • Thinker

    Opps…typo.

    Smith Kleine Beecham are now known as Glaxo Smith Kleine, or GSK, unless they have renamed again.

  • http://meanoufs.info/ Jane