Heparin Deaths

The FDA versus Imported drugs. This issue, while it might seem minor to the larger debate about import restrictions and protectionism, is perhaps one of the most important questions that the Obama administration and Congress must address. Importing drugs or raw materials for drugs from overseas could rival auto imports in terms of national importance for at least two reasons:

First, the pharmaceutical industry is one of the United States’ largest manufacturing businesses, and a growing one at that.

Second, mandating safety in pharmaceuticals is a far more difficult process than checking the emission or safety equipment on a car.

Imagine, that the Bush Administration had simply decided to trust Korean importers of automobiles to put catalytic converters on cars, never bothering to actually look under the hood. Or even more extreme, the Administration didn’t even check to see if cars came with seatbelts. Seems absurd. No auto manufacturer would even try getting away with that.

Yet, allowing an exponential growth in the number of foreign drug plants while making only an incremental increase in the number of inspectors of such plants, is even more absurd. The health risk from increasing pollution might be considerable, but it would be slow and indirect. If a car didn’t come with a seatbelt, the consumer could simply refuse to buy it.

But if your drugs are contaminated, they can kill, almost immediately and without warning. We take the safety of our drugs for granted. We are not junkies buying crack on the street. We are buying drugs from established American firms with at least the tacit belief that the FDA is protecting us. We should be able to trust our drug makers and be confident that these drugs are safe for consumption.

It is such a cliché that the cost of U.S. healthcare is increased because of the onerous government regulations. Go to Europe or Mexico for the latest advances because their government isn’t slowing down the development of new treatments by over demanding trials. One of the biggest flaws in the U.S. healthcare system is the total fiction that our drugs are pure and contain what the label says.

Tomorrow, we will discuss the FDA’s flawed Beyond Our Borders Initiative.

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Attorney Gordon Johnson
Chair Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation Group, American Association of Justice
g@gordonjohnson.com :: 800-992-9447 :: Attorney Gordon S. Johnson, Jr.

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