In The Dark: What Country Did Your Prescription Come From?

Disclaimer: The purpose of this post is to enlighten anyone who receives prescriptions from a doctor in America and has them filled at an American pharmacy. 

Are your birth control pills made in India? If so, were you aware of it?

 Silly me.  I sure wasn't!  I thought that the prescriptions I have filled at my pharmacy were manufactured in the USA.  I was under the impression that it was illegal to purchase drugs from other countries, even if it was a personal choice.  I assumed prescriptions were regulated by the FDA on my soil.  It did not occur to me to squint my eyes and check the fine print.  To my surprise, these pills were manufactured in a factory overseas to be distributed by/for an American Pharmaceutical Company.  The FDA's mediocre and substandard regulatory practices set aside, me and my pill pack being considered worthy enough for their safety stamp of approval would have been welcome news.  Instead, uncertainty and betrayals... 

In light of the deliberate deceptions drug companies maneuver for profits and shady human testing done by those entities and our federal government that I am already aware of, I am baffled by my own gullibility.  I don't know why I didn't inquire with this simple observation without hesitation.  In fact, I wondered immediately of the many other women over 35 who are likely on this same mini-pill, if any pill at all.  There is a great mass of women involved.  A plethora of birth control pills that have been swallowed!  We share a general unawareness that the "generic" version of the birth control pill given out to save money is likely from one of the under-regulated factories overseas.

The FDA to their credit, has warned some overseas drug manufacturers such as in India, China, and Poland and given them violations.  Gross negligence reports include microbiological contamination, dosing errors, an absence of the expected drug in pills, and substandard ingredients or testing procedures in place.  When they do make the overseas visits which is not often enough, this is what our FDA inspectors repeatedly have found.  The factories are warned but not shut down to my knowledge.  Sometimes major drugs or batches of them are recalled in the process, but it is all allowed to continue while society as a whole is blind to it.  Glass particles?  Bugs in the packaging?  Lack of testing?  What else on earth will Big Pharma and Big Insurance think of next to save and make money off of our innocence and ignorance?  It puts lives at risk everyday.  Side effects and bad reactions cannot be monitored.  Vital medications are not being taken in the appropriate dose or even at all in some cases, but pharmaceutical consumers are acting under the false pretense that they are doing their part.  As much as I already mistrusted our train-wreck FDA and for-profit healthcare system, the corporate run healthcare system has failed even more miserably.  Integrity and ethics have been abandoned while national media attention is sorely lacking on this matter.  If social media has a viral frenzy eventually, then the government can only blame themselves.  After all, they have allowed our fascist healthcare system to make us all sick by skirting basic safety procedures and reaping huge profits.  This is while giving the bottom 98% the tax bill.  I am sure that a lot of companies manufacturing drugs for the USA have excellent standards and some definitely better than ours.  Our CDC and FDA are in need of reform.  But, if we can't even regulate our own labs and factories well enough and don't, why would it seem feasible to scout the world too?

A full disclosure should be made to patients.  Fine print to stumble upon isn't good enough.  Doctors, nurses, and pharmacies should disclose to patients exactly what they are giving them and where it came from ahead of time.  On every single pill, shot, IV, and bandage.  It should be a right to know what we are receiving and not be lied to.  If we wish to make an informed educated decision about what we may be taking (or not taking), we should be able to. 

Resources concerning FDA violations in overseas drug factories:

Link: FDA Warning Letter To Pharmaceutical Company Jelfa SA 7/14/11

Link: FDA alleges major violations, use of old ingredients at Chinese Pfizer plant

Link: FDA Issues Warning Letter to Chinese API Manufacturer for Data Manipulation Violations

Link: UPDATED: FDA castigates three Mylan sterile drug plants in warning letter

Link: More Drug Recalls From India – Do You Trust Foreign-Made Generics?