THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

Chances are very good that the ingredients were made overseas in India and China, in plants with minimal inspection and quality control.

Now here’s another snippet of information; 80% of the active pharmaceutical ingredients in medications sold here are manufactured elsewhere. You know where I saw that number? A Food and Drug Administration report, dear friends. That brings me back to Aurobindo and Wockhardt; India’s 5th and 13th largest drug ingredient and manufacturing facilities. Their plants make other pharmaceutical-related products as well. Over half of all medical devices some from over yonder.

There are about 600 such plants in China and around 300 in India. Most of your aspirin is made in China not to mention numerous other over-the-counter drug products. Aurobindo has 6 plants in India, 1 in the U.S. (Dayton, N.J.) and 1 in Brazil, mainly to serve Brazilian customers. Chances are at least two of your prescriptions came from one of the 6 plants in India considering costs for the huge pharmas are anywhere from 15 – 40% lower than in the U.S...

How many times the factories have been truly inspected is open to speculation. A few that require special attention for whatever quality reasons, attract some attention. There are others that haven’t been seen more than once or twice a decade, if at all. Nearly 8 out of 10 generics are manufactured overseas by those low-paid workers in China (a buck or so an hour) and India and several other countries. Indian factory owners are currently in a vicious battle with unions that are actually demanding a living wage for workers in assorted industries.

As for Chinese manufacturers, their appeal to the huge pharmaceutical companies can best be summed up in this Internet statement from Panjin Dmso Chemicals Co. Ltd. in the Liaoning Province: “Our product’s qualities are the best in China, also their prices are the lowest.” The company is named after their home city.

The Republicans want to cut funding for everything that doesn’t go boom or isn’t Koch-connected. The FDA is in desperate need of inspectors to hold Chinese and Indian meds manufacturers feet to the fire to avoid another deadly debacle like the 2008 contaminated Chinese-manufactured (contracted to Baxter) blood-thinning Heparin batches that killed 81 Americans officially, though estimates run into the hundreds. After-the-fact FDA inspections found numerous violations by the Chinese. As worrisome is the fact that numerous players in this tragedy remain in the industry.

Given that the Chinese have shown a willingness to poisonously adulterate their own milk and Big Pharma considers killing their own customers a "cost of doing business", you should have no expectation of using safe drugs anymore.