Somewhat biased but interesting perspective on the policy towards China.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?445077-2/china-rx
Millions of Americans are taking prescription drugs made in China [and India-most generics, but China makes the ingredients for India] and don’t know it–and pharmaceutical companies are not eager to tell them. This is a disturbing, well-researched wake-up call for improving the current system of drug supply and manufacturing.
Several decades ago, penicillin, vitamin C, and many other prescription and over-the-counter products were manufactured in the United States. But with the rise of globalization, antibiotics, antidepressants, birth control pills, blood pressure medicines, cancer drugs, among many others [and predatory pricing and the resulting monopolies] are made in China and sold in the United States.
China’s biggest impact on the US drug supply is making essential ingredients for thousands of medicines found in American homes and used in hospital intensive care units and operating rooms.
The authors convincingly argue that there are at least two major problems with this scenario. First, it is inherently risky for the United States to become dependent on any one country as a source for vital medicines, especially given the uncertainties of geopolitics. For example, if an altercation in the South China Sea causes military personnel to be wounded, doctors may rely upon medicines with essential ingredients made by the adversary. Second, lapses in safety standards and quality control in Chinese manufacturing are a risk. Citing the concerns of FDA officials and insiders within the pharmaceutical industry, the authors document incidents of illness and death caused by contaminated medications that prompted reform.
This probing book examines the implications of our reliance on China on the quality and availability of vital medicines.
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Editor’s Note: It is extremely difficult to find out where pharmaceuticals are made, whether they are prescription of non-prescription. There is no law that mandates where the medications are manufactures, so if you check the box or the label, most often it is not there. The next step to find out where the medications are made is the book China Rx, which is the book we are reviewing. And lastly, calling up the company itself. Even with this time-consuming test, you may still not get the answer.
What most Americans don’t know is that 80% of of pharmaceuticals are made in China or India but mainly in China. China has a virtual monopoly on antibiotics. As for my feeling about antibiotics, I have noted that sometimes “Keflex” or cephalexin are totally ineffective. I think cephalexin is less effective not due to increasing resistance of bacteria, but due to a decrease of the potency of the antibiotics because of cheaper manufacturing practices. Plus, the FDA does not have the funding to oversee potency of most medicines especially generics.
Of course, when one country manufactures most of the world’s pharmaceuticals, this means that monopolistic policies are soon to follow: Increasing prices; ability to ignore penalties; ability to create shortages at a minute’s notice.
The authors of the book recommend that the US Congress label pharmaceuticals a strategic asset and therefore China can not use pharmaceuticals as unfair leverage against the U.S. in the future. Certainly, it is not going to happen from this Congress.