China poisons our medications

China intentionally poisons our medications

In March of 2008, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a nation-wide recall of the drug heparin, a popular anticoagulant.

The drug, produced in China, is usually made from pig intestines. The company in charge, Scientific Protein Laboratories, was an American pharmaceutical firm that is accused with counterfeiting the drug in order to save money during production and avoid using the dwindling supply of healthy pigs in China. Additives included substances made from mammal or fish cartilage, which caused the substance to become over-sulphated. The counterfeited substance can be made at a fraction of the price of true heparin ($9 per pound instead of $900 per pound) and it is certain that the drug was purposefully counterfeited and not just a simple accidental lapse in manufacturing.

The FDA admitted that they neglected to inspect the drug before it was sent out to distributors, though they insist that even if they had inspected it, the contamination would not have been found. This, of course, makes you wonder what the point of the FDA is at all if their inspections don’t uncover contaminants, which is pretty much the whole purpose of the organization in the first place. But don’t worry – they won’t waste their time on a useless inspection anyways, even though a full 16% of US pharmaceutical products come from China.

However, the FDA did finally mosey on over to the plant where the drug was produced. There, they found several major problems. Still, the FDA reports that if they are to inspect every foreign production plane every other year, they would need to add about $225 million to their annual budget. It is reported that they may spend only about $11 million this year on inspections. Hey maybe that’s a reason to NOT MAKE STUFF IN CHINA!

The FDA has completely failed in finding the culprits so why do we trust them? The Chinese government insists that the contaminating substance was not intentionally put into any of their products. Scientific Protein Laboratories are still causing issues because of they are failing to move quickly enough to widen an investigation into contamination of several lots. The FDA issued a warning letter in hopes of quickening their sluggish pace.

Sadly, the drug was widely used. Over 700 people reported injury from using the drug and at least 81 deaths. Some symptoms include difficulty breathing, nausea, vomiting, sweating, and falling blood pressure. One man’s wife and son died within weeks of each other due to using the contaminated heparin for their dialysis. A man in Illinois was given $625,000 because he was given a dose of the tainted medicine.

Now more than ever it is important to know what’s in your food and drugs – apparently the FDA has better things to do.

So think about this, China now makes our clothes, toys, controls our food supply and the one thing that we need when we get sick from all of this is medication which they are now poisoning? Please help me remember why we get the cheap and dangerous crap we get from a Communist country is wonderful idea. Am I the only one that sees this craziness!?