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Carcinogens Have Infiltrated the Generic Drug Supply in the U.S.

bloomberg.com

121–130 of 142 posts

Re: Carcinogens Have Infiltrated the Generic Drug Supply in the U.S.

#121
post #103
post #75

Welcome to the future of warfare.

This deserves many more upvotes. External agents find cheap ways to destroy the country, and some internal agents sacrifice common man for quarterly bonus. A virally popular device (non-prescription and cheap, for god’s sake) to detect toxicity levels, and connected app to visualize the health impact will serve as a wake-up call.

Completely agree. You'd think that when something like this happens, it would be followed up by a string of arrests. There is a total lack of accountability in this country. This country is totally corrupted.

Re: Carcinogens Have Infiltrated the Generic Drug Supply in the U.S.

#123
post #102
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The FDA has been downsized many times over the past three decades. So what we're seeing here is not at all unexpected.

The FDA’s budget is more than 6x what it was in 1992.[1]. An increased every year since then. What do you mean downsized? [1] https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/R44576.html#_Toc82198...

That's no inflation adjusted. And it's also not adjusted for processing load. But it does show the greatly increased role of user fees, which I gather has facilitated regulatory capture.

Re: Carcinogens Have Infiltrated the Generic Drug Supply in the U.S.

#124

I wonder if the point of this, is to have us weigh getting "brand name" more seriously. There is no sensible reason to pay a premium for brand name if the generic is chemically equivalent.

"...pay a premium for brand name..."

My physician had prescribed "Diovan, not Valsartan" last year because of this. My pharmacist called me up as I was driving home from the physician's office. He assured me that he wasn't buying anything from that Chinese company, and observed that I'd be going from $65 per three months to $365 per three months. OK, generic it is...

Re: Carcinogens Have Infiltrated the Generic Drug Supply in the U.S.

#125

Quick question. Title says "generic", but obviously there is a massive economic interest in switching people from generics to non-generics. Is this contamination also possible in non-generics???

According to TFA, Novartis, the inventor of (non-generic) Diovan, found the NDMA when they bought some (generic) Valsartan from Huahai. They were the first customer to test thoroughly enough to find it. So, contamination in non-generics is possible, but probably less likely. Actually the NDMA wasn't produced in the original manufacturing process designated for Diovan and Valsartan, but Huahai used a different process to save money.

Re: Carcinogens Have Infiltrated the Generic Drug Supply in the U.S.

#126
post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The FDA’s budget is more than 6x what it was in 1992.[1]. An increased every year since then. What do you mean downsized? [1] https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/R44576.html#_Toc82198...

That's no inflation adjusted. And it's also not adjusted for processing load. But it does show the greatly increased role of user fees, which I gather has facilitated regulatory capture.

Inflation hasn’t been 600% since 1992.

Not sure what processing load is, but if they’re asked to do more that could be an issue, but I wouldn’t call it a cut.

Re: Carcinogens Have Infiltrated the Generic Drug Supply in the U.S.

#127
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Given the relatively small significance and the fact that this article was published in an issue with the blurb "Can You Trust Generics?" on the cover, I'm gonna say this is just more FUD from Bloomberg. It's not a small significance, and it's not FUD. It's admittedly possible to take some measured numbers for the prevalence of one of the nitrosamines, put that through a dose-response model (of controversial accura…

> retained surgical instruments inside a patient. > If their procedures couldn't detect these nitrosamines for years -- what else is being let through? Heavy metals? Pyrogens? Some other class of toxic chemicals? Inadequate/overly-high active ingredient dose/concentration? Leaving behind instruments in a patient is a "never event". The accepted amount is literally zero. When it comes to heavy metals, there are standa…

One is discrete while the other is continuous, so that's different. Still, the proposition "a single pill is equivalent to 48 pounds of bacon" seems to put us back in the discrete domain...

Re: Carcinogens Have Infiltrated the Generic Drug Supply in the U.S.

#128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> retained surgical instruments inside a patient. > If their procedures couldn't detect these nitrosamines for years -- what else is being let through? Heavy metals? Pyrogens? Some other class of toxic chemicals? Inadequate/overly-high active ingredient dose/concentration? Leaving behind instruments in a patient is a "never event". The accepted amount is literally zero. When it comes to heavy metals, there are standa…

One is discrete while the other is continuous, so that's different. Still, the proposition "a single pill is equivalent to 48 pounds of bacon" seems to put us back in the discrete domain...

Even the continuous curve has a minimum threshold. One molecule of anything isn't going to kill you.

When it comes to bacon, it's not only the NDMA that can kill you :)

Re: Carcinogens Have Infiltrated the Generic Drug Supply in the U.S.

#129
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I carry a lot of guilt for having "oh, blockchains could help" thoughts quite a lot. A federally supported blockchain used as a public notary and other official functions, as you mentioned, seems like it may have a place in the future.

Someone really needs to create a version of the cloud to butt extension that replaces "blockchain" with "database". What you're describing is a useful application for a _database_. Mixing "blockchain" into it would only hurt the viability of the database, not bring any obvious benefit. Your comment makes so much more sense with the word database: "A federally supported database used as a public notary and other offic…

Normally I’d agree with you, but given this is all about verification it might make sense to distribute both trust as well as usage.

Re: Carcinogens Have Infiltrated the Generic Drug Supply in the U.S.

#130
post #28

Good to know that the US health care system will impose these individuals with the cost. Shame on them for not properly researching the product. They should have considered their consumer choices against the possibility of cancer years later. No doubt the medical bankruptcy some will have is deserved. Obviously sarcasm. This is, however, how the current US medical system behaves. It's impossible that these patients w…

You should able to sue the pharmacy and your insurer for sourcing and requiring tainted products that are not quality controlled. I would expect some class action lawsuits to appear shortly.

I hope so. After reading the Bloomberg article, I looked up my Losartan Rx. It's from a manufacturer's lot that was pulled by the FDA on Feb 28 of this year.

The kicker is, my (major chain) pharmacy sold it to me this July...

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