FDA Scam

Multiple sources are reporting on a scam being run by individuals calling people posing as the FDA. The scammer tells individuals that they are violating law by purchasing their medicine from outside the country. If the individual doesn't pay, they will be punished. This leads to individuals paying thousands of dollars to the scammer out of fear.

Helping to prevent innocent people from being scammed is another reason for strong community pharmacists. A strong pharmacist-patient relationship is more valuable than a few dollars saved from buying questionable drugs from online.

Extortionists posing as federal agents have taken as much as $31,000 from frightened people who thought they would be prosecuted for purchasing their medications from outside the country, federal regulators say.

How Does This Happen? Twice!

What is going on at these manufacturing centers to allow this type of contamination?

Federal health regulators have found tiny particles of trash in drugs made by Genzyme, the second time this year the biotechnology company has been cited for contamination issues.

The Food and Drug Administration said Friday that bits of steel, rubber and fiber found in vials of drugs used to treat rare enzyme disorders could cause serious adverse health effects for patients.

Foxes Guarding the Chicken Coop

My colleague Jesse Vivian wrote an interesting article, FDA Inspection of Foreign Drug Companies.

The article recounts the appalling failures of the FDA to protect the purity of foods and drugs we consume. I do differ with my friend, Dr. Vivian, when he states in his commentary:

What's going on here? Political pundits might take the low road to explain the situation. Dr. Woodcock works for Dr. von Eschenbach, who is a personal friend of President George W. Bush. President Bush reportedly does not like the idea of burdening members of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) with additional costs and, of course, PhRMA opposes the legislation. That may be the skeptic's viewpoint. But there are two sides to every story. – Jesse Vivian

My Response to Vivian’s Commentary

The sole purpose of the FDA is to protect the public from unsafe food and drugs. That is why the agency was created. Remember Upton Sinclair’s book, The Jungle? The book told of the unsanitary conditions in the meat packing industry at the turn of the century. The public outcry led to the passage of acts to protect American consumers from reckless industry practices that poisoned our food and drugs. Who would think that today, toys for our children come from China with lead paint and heparin is purposely contaminated for profit? I am supposed to find this acceptable because big business profits?

Where, when and how did the FDA fail its mission? It can be traced to the Ronald Reagan administration and a now discredited philosophy that government is “the problem, not the solution” and big business not only can be trusted to police itself but can do everything better than the “public sector”.

We have lived long enough to see this naïve notion completely discredited by companies routinely poisoning consumers, cheating government and individuals by conspiring to overcharge for prescription drugs, exploiting home buyers with outrageous mortgages, usurious interest rates on credit cards and charging outrageous prices for gasoline.

The true “low road” is to fail to put the blame on those responsible. I hear cynics say both political parties are “the same”. I say that the Republican Party invented and implemented the concept of putting former industry lobbyists in charge of the very government agencies that are supposed to regulate the industries for your protection.

In short, President Bush handpicked foxes to guard all of our chicken coops. Now that most of the chickens are mysteriously missing, save for feathers on the ground, we are asked to believe the fat foxes had nothing to do with the missing chickens.