China’s Ineptitude is Exposing FDA Negligence

The sparks flew on Capital Hill last week. During grilling of FDA executives Rep. John Dingell (D., Mich.), the chairman of the House Commerce and Energy Committee, said "Our citizens can no longer trust that their food, drugs or medical devices are safe when the FDA says they are."

The controversy erupted over the tainted blood-thinning drug Heparin that has now killed 81 Americans, mostly individuals who were getting the drug during kidney dialysis. According to the FDA it now appears the contamination was intentional, yet the exact perpetrator is not yet known.

The event has fueled media hysteria – and it’s about time. CNN was running comments from widowed spouses over the weekend. All major media are finally paying attention.

The odd thing about this is that if China wasn’t involved this drug problem would have gone away – swept under the rug with the other 100,000 annual drug-induced deaths.

For example, many of the patients on dialysis were likely on it because their kidneys were injured by another drug, Trasylol, that the FDA left on the market knowing that it was not only causing massive kidney damage but killing 1000 Americans per month! When 20-20 reported on this nobody in Congress or other media really seemed to care. The drug company involved, Bayer, even lied directly to the FDA and was caught in the act! This atrocity caused far more damage than Heparin. It didn’t involve China – it involved one of the FDA’s long time friends, Bayer. And the drug wasn’t tainted – it simply killed by how it worked.

There are so many active scandals at the FDA that no one person could possibly keep up with them all. China may be doing everyone in America a very large favor – placing a glaring spotlight on a corrupt and negligent management team at the FDA – a problem that has been going on for decades and has cost many hundreds of thousands of American lives over the years. Enough is enough. Big Pharma profit isn’t all that matters.