The Drug Scare That Exposed a World of Hurt

The New York Times ^ | March 30, 2008 | By Walt Bogdanich

[JACKRUSSELL]

When cold medicine containing a poison made in China killed nearly 120 Panamanians in 2006 and early 2007, Americans could take some comfort in the belief that a similar epidemic could never happen here, not with one of the best drug regulatory systems in the world.

Then last spring, hundreds if not thousands of pets died or were sickened in the United States by a Chinese pet food ingredient that contained lethal levels of melamine, an industrial product used to artificially boost protein levels. That was followed quickly by the discovery that Americans were brushing their teeth with Chinese toothpaste containing a poisonous chemical used in antifreeze.

Still, no Americans died from the chemical.

And then came heparin.

A hugely popular blood thinner used in surgery and dialysis, heparin turned out in some cases to contain a mystery substance that sophisticated lab tests earlier this month determined to be a chemically modified substance that mimics the real drug. The United States Food and Drug Administration has linked it to 19 deaths and hundreds of severe allergic reactions, though the agency is still investigating whether the contaminant was the actual cause.

What a difference a year makes.

After many near misses and warning signs, the heparin scare has eliminated any doubt that, here and abroad, regulatory agencies overseeing the safety of medicine are overwhelmed in a global economy where supply chains are long and opaque, and often involve many manufacturers.

“In the 1990s governments were all about trying to maximize the volume of international trade,” said Moisés Naím, editor in chief of Foreign Policy magazine and author of “Illicit: How Smugglers, Traffickers and Copycats Are Hijacking the Global Economy.” “I’m all for that, but I believe this decade is going to be about maximizing the quality of that trade, not quantity.”......

[JACKRUSSELL]

SUPPLY CHAIN This family-owned workshop in Xinwangzhuang, a village in Juangsu Province, China, processes pig intestines. Mucous membranes from the intestines are used to make heparin. (Ariana Lindquist for The New York Times)

[JACKRUSSELL]

A ping list dedicated to exposing the quality, safety and security issues of food and other products made in China.


Please FReepmail me if you would like to be on or off of the list.

(This can be a high volume ping list.)

[JACKRUSSELL]

"The way heparin is made and distributed illustrates the challenges they face. The drug’s raw material comes from mucous membranes in the intestines of slaughtered pigs. Those membranes are mixed together and cooked, a process that in China often takes place in unregulated family workshops.

"It is then transported to middlemen, called consolidators, who direct the product to plants in China that manufacture heparin’s active ingredient for shipment to either another trader or the finished dose manufacturer. In the United States, the tainted ingredients ended up at Baxter International, which later had to recall the blood thinner.

"Since the outbreak in the United States, Japan and several countries in Europe have recalled certain heparin products made with Chinese ingredients. In some instances, European traders buy and sell the heparin to companies in other countries, extending the supply chain even more.

"Anti-counterfeiting experts say that the longer the chain, the greater the opportunity for counterfeiters to adulterate the product. In fact, F.D.A. investigators have yet to figure out where in the multistage manufacturing process the chemical that mimics heparin was added."

[kittymyrib]

Yep...that’s certainly an immaculate, state-of-the-art drug factory in China. And to think that some big pharma company charges an exorbitant price for drugs made in these deplorable conditions when they get to your local drugstore.

[Cicero]

Maybe the New York Times just noticed. I think the rest of us have been concerned ever since the dog food scandal came out.

And maybe they trust the FDA and the feds to protect us. I certainly don’t. The authorities tried their very best to bury these scandals, and they didn’t do a damned thing until the news broke through their blanket of silence. And they still aren’t doing very much.

Trade with China is too important to the big money people who pay off the politicians. They will cover up as much as they can. And they still haven’t made the faintest effort to change labeling regulations, so you know where the ingredients actually come from.

[lilylangtree]

China’s own biological warfare.

[goodnesswins]

Not exactly a “clean room” environment.....yuck.

[43north]

China is an ongoing criminal enterprise just like the Clintoons.