Katherine Eban: Widespread fraud in the generic drug industry

https://peterattiamd.com/katherineeban/

“Generics are supposed to be this great leveler. It’s like the democratization of drugs that the rich and the poor alike can have access to for these great cures. To find out…that the companies cashing in on that image are really selling that short in a very devious way, is painful to realize. It’s a real great public health hope that has a very dark underbelly.” — Katherine Eban

In this episode, Katherine Eban, investigative journalist and author of Bottle of Lies, illuminates the prevalence of fraud in generic drug manufacturing which brings into question the idea that generics are identical to brand-name drug as we are lead to believe. Katherine walks us through how this widespread corruption came to be, including the shocking story of one particularly egregious (and unfortunately not uncommon) example of an Indian drug company, Ranbaxy, whose business model was completely dependent on falsifying data in their drug applications to the FDA. We then discuss the subsequent investigation into Indian and Chinese drug manufacturing plants which revealed that nearly 80% of them are tainted with fraud. We conclude this discussion on a positive note with i) how individuals can investigate their own drugs to protect themselves ii) an innovative pharmacy attempting to disrupt the market and iii) some ideas on how to reform to the regulations around generic drugs, the FDA, and more.

Filed under: General Problems