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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.