Drug inspection

If you didn’t hear Diane Rehm Show on WETS-FM on Feb 20, you missed an issue of medical safety that raises troubling national security problems. As extremists cut back government roles and attacked federal regulation, protection of U.S. medicines was abdicated.At present, 80 percent of all pharmaceutical ingredients used in the United States, most utterly uninspected, come from other countries, mostly China and India. Crucially, 100 percent of U.S. antibiotics now come from China, as do nearly all ingredients for lifesaving medicines used in hospitals. So do most of your family’s aspirin, vitamins and over-the-counter medications.The safety issue is straightforward — most foreign drug plants are not inspected and fakes are common and deadly. The Chinese government has blocked visas for Food and Drug Administration inspectors for over two years, preventing inspection of Chinese drug suppliers. In 2008, a major FDA recall of the blood thinner heparin imported from China was triggered as 81 Americans died and an estimated 785 Americans suffered serious injuries from the adulterated drug. Similar injuries and deaths occurred in 11 other countries, according to Wikipedia.org. The national security issue hinges upon the power China now has over our health care system. If China stopped these imports, whether by accident or intent, according to Dr. Jesse Goodman, former chief scientist for the FDA, our health care system would collapse fairly quickly. In 2005, President George W. Bush requested over $7 billion based on the national security threat posed by a flu pandemic occurring while the United States lacked the ability to manufacture flu vaccines. Congress agreed and $3.8 billion was appropriated to create a network to manufacture the vaccines. Recently, the Obama administration was able to pass the Food & Drug Safety Act of 2012, which has lead to the current push-back against foreign criminals who threaten our medical supply. JENNIFER HELTON HANNJonesborough



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