Where is the medicine you depend on made? | Arthritis Information

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From Consumer Confidential -

 
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/mar/30/business/fi-lazarus30
 
Pip
Pip, this has been one of my big gripes.  MXT caused several deaths last year because of a tainted batch.  I tried to find out where my MXT was made and it was impossible to find out.  I wrote a letter to WalMart regarding my concern and asking for specific information and I never received a response.  Everytime I inject MXT I wonder..............LindyMarch 30?  Girl, you trying to catch up on old news?   I remember reading about that heparin scare.  I knew 2 people using heparin products, a heparin-flush(?) they use it to flush out lines-one friend is on kidney dialysis, so I followed the story.  Anyways, the ingredient, oversulfated chrondrontin (something like that) came from China.  Interesting story, the ingredient it was substituted for comes from pigs intestine, and there's was a shortage cuz pigs were sick or something, some of the newspaper pictures of these factories looked a little yucky.  So, not only do I wonder where my meds are made, but where do the drug ingredients come from, and many come from China or outside of the US.
 
I'm pretty sure enbrel is made here.  But some of the mtx I've taken is made in Australia.  When naprosyn was prescription only (waaaaay back) I noticed it came from Puerto Rico. 
[QUOTE=LinB]Pip, this has been one of my big gripes.  MXT caused several deaths last year because of a tainted batch.  I tried to find out where my MXT was made and it was impossible to find out.  I wrote a letter to WalMart regarding my concern and asking for specific information and I never received a response.  Everytime I inject MXT I wonder..............Lindy[/QUOTE]
 
I remember that.  I was on another board back then.  I THINK the deaths were in China, and they claimed that  that mtx was not shipped out of the country.  I called my pharmacist at Longs and he checked and said he hadn't received any notices from the mtx manufacturer, so I guess no news was good news, and I was still alive. 
 
Yep - I'm almost to April!  WooHoo!  When my husband was last out of town all he asked is that I get rid of the piles of old newspapers.  Didn't happen!  LOL  Not for lack of trying, tho, life gets in the way.
 
Joy, I wouldn't be too sure thinking any of our meds are made here.  Notice how they pushed back the labeling until 2011.  Why do that if most was made here?  I'm guessing they don't want new people in office and this getting out at the same time.  Too much of a powder keg issue. 
 
Still, I really wouldn't care to much where it was made (prefer here so our people were employed) as long as there was oversight.  Doesn't sound like there's much oversight from this article.
 
Pip
Biologics are a little more trickier to make than a drug made from chemicals -- I think I read the enbrel plant was in the US -- I'll have to check it out.
[QUOTE=Joie]Biologics are a little more trickier to make than a drug made from chemicals -- I think I read the enbrel plant was in the US -- I'll have to check it out. Yes, but this article mentions that the components of some meds are made off shore.  I'm assuming Enbrel and the others have at least some chemicals in that that can do that/
 
Jas, you make a good point.  I'm not happy with that =/- 20% thing with the FDA and generics and it's one of the reasons we chose to stay with the Brand drug for my Minocin.
 
Hugs,
 
Pip
[QUOTE=Pip!]Yes, but this article mentions that the components of some meds are made off shore.  I'm assuming Enbrel and the others have at least some chemicals in that that can do that/ What I find interesting is that one of the chief arguments against allowing US citizens to purchase their medications on-line from overseas sources where they are cheaper, is that you can't be sure of the quality of those medications.  It is said that they may not have the same stict manufacturing practices found here in the US.  Can anyone say hypocrisy???[QUOTE=Hillhoney]What I find interesting is that one of the chief arguments against allowing US citizens to purchase their medications on-line from overseas sources where they are cheaper, is that you can't be sure of the quality of those medications.  It is said that they may not have the same stict manufacturing practices found here in the US.  Can anyone say hypocrisy???[/QUOTE]
 
We can't buy drugs from Canada (unsafe)  but we get drug ingredients from companies in China that have little oversight.  
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