Counterfeit Drugs
May 17th, 2007
Submitted By: Lindsay Yoshitomi
The major ingredient in antifreeze, diethylene glycol, has been linked to counterfeit drugs sold as medication. Thousands have died as a result of this industrial solvent being substituted for glycerin which is commonly and safely used in drugs, food and toothpaste. The deadly counterfeit drug has been tracked to Chinese companies, compounding the woes of China’s already lax food and drug regulations. In the recent months, US authorities have accused China of exporting animal food tainted with the industrial chemical, melamine.
According to this NY Times article, China has been a major source of counterfeit drugs. Couple that with being a big player in the global economy today, and you have a recipe for a profitable, although deadly counterfeiting business. The sweet-tasting poison is added to cough syrup, fever medication and injectable drugs because it’s cheaper than glycerin. Anyone who has used antifreeze in their car knows how toxic diethylene glycol can be. We are often warned not to spill antifreeze on the ground because pets are attracted to the sweet taste of this toxic syrup, which can lead to death. It’s scary to think that a company would knowingly distribute a chemical that causes death as a safe ingredient for medication. It makes me wonder about the quality of imported foods from countries that have poor standards and safety regulations.
Although the counterfeit glycerin has not slipped into the US, thousands around the world have died. Most recently, Panama fell victim to the falsely labeled drug when it manufactured 260,000 bottles of cold medicine using diethylene glycol, which was imported from China as 99.5% pure glycerin. Hundreds died as a result of the toxic syrup, which has been traced to its origin near the Yangtze Delta. According to trade records, the counterfeit glycerin went through three companies in three countries, untested and with altered certificates that eventually showed no point of origin.
Dr. Henk Bekedam, the World Health Organization’s top representative in Beijing says, “This is really a global problem, and it needs to be handled in a global way.” However, he doesn’t go on to say how. Although the Chinese government claims it will clean up its pharmaceutical industry, much like the tainted pet food incident, officials also claim no laws have been broken. No one is admitting a mea culpa here.
Entry Filed under: Pre-Departure, Beijing, China, Misc.
5 Comments Add your own
1. Chris Carr | May 17th, 2007 at 7:30 pm
Good post.
This reminds me of the not too distant infant milk formula scandal in China. As I remember acompany sold fake/counterfeit infant formula. Mothers could not figure out why there babies kept withering away. They kept feeding the babies more and more formula, and their babies kept getting thinner and weaker … and died.
As I remember, most of these mothers were uneducated peasants. They just did not know what was up or know better ….
2. Adib Assassi | May 20th, 2007 at 4:35 pm
I think in the case of the counterfeit formula that Dr. Carr refers to the problem was not the fact that mother’s were uneducated. In that situation, and this one, the problem is that people are being misled. I wouldn’t suspect that medice or formula that I buy off of the shelf is conterfeit. In either case its very unfortunate.
It is one thing to counterfeit clothing and sneakers. It’s entirely different when the counterfeiting involves human life. One aspect of the problem is the counterfieters who pass on their substances as being legitimate. But other aspects of the problem, as the article alludes to, are the lax testing measures. The gyclol passed through numerous hands and was never tested to confirm its authenticity. More thorough and stringent Chinese FDA procedures would help, but other countries’ FDAs and port authorities need to do more stringent examinations.
Something needs to be done to help counteract this, because lives are at stake, and consumers should have no reason to suspect that what they are purchasing is not what it claims to be.
3. Chris Carr | May 20th, 2007 at 6:28 pm
Good comment, Adib.
This is a big deal in China and I think (hope) they know they have a huge branding problem on their hands and they need to get on top of this quickly. See, e.g., this NY Times article, “An Export Boom Suddenly Facing a Quality Crisis.”
Fifteen years ago, “Made in China” meant really poor quality products in the eyes of most (all?) US consumers. But recently they have made good progress to get over this quality perception hurdle on some fronts (e.g., Lenovo, Haier, other, etc.), so as I note above this type of PR for China and its supply chain is a brand killer.
My reference to poor uneducated peasant women/moms was not to suggest they were at fault or responsible in any way, but to highlight that they simply had no knowledge what was making their babies sick and the more sick the kids became, the more fake formula they fed them. Whereas perhaps an educated mother in the West “might” have known or suspected something was amiss from a feeding standpoint or would have been in the position to take their kid to the hospital right away to find out what was up. These poor uneducated rural women either had no such knowledge and/or no such option due to their financial state. A real tragedy.
Let me ask you and your classmates a controversial policy question ….
Would you favor the death penalty (for first time offense) for those responsible at firms that manufactured counterfeit infant formula (or the poison toothpaste in Panama that has been tracked to China) as a possible way to deter this? And even if you did so would it work as an effective deterrent? As a benchmark, does the death penalty in the US effectively deter violent crime such as murder? What does the research show (hint: it shows that the death penalty in the US has been an abysmal failure on nearly all fronts)? But would China be different due to cultural and societal and governmental differences?
4. Lindsay Yoshitomi | May 21st, 2007 at 4:37 pm
In response to Professor Carr’s questions….
Although controversial, I’m all for tough punishment. Therefore, I would favor the death penalty for those responsible, even if it was a first time offense. In a situation like this where people are dying, you can’t tell me the individuals responsible didn’t know what was going to happen. However, as sad as it is, I’m not sure the death penalty would be an effective deterrent. Some people will still take the risks to make a few more bucks, and if caught, (with something like this) it is easy to play dumb and might be hard to prove prior knowledge of the counterfeit drugs.
I don’t think the death penalty in the US effectively deters violent crimes such as murder. For criminals with the psychological capabilities of murder, death is not a big fear and is not going to stop them. And as far as death as a punishment, I sometimes think death is the easy way out for paying for a crime. The death penalty threat might be a little different in China because of their cultural, societal, and government differences. But it probably still won’t make a huge difference. It’s kind of scary to think of what our world has come to and where things might go considering the threat of death can’t even stop crimes from happening.
5. Chuck Rylant | May 23rd, 2007 at 10:44 am
These kinds of stories are always very scary to hear. Fortunately the laws of economics usually correct these problems. Eventually, consumers will stop buying products from China if there are many negative stories like this or Chinese authorities will crack down on this behavior to correct the problem. Unfortunately, it often takes a long time for the changes to take place and many people or animals will be injured in the process.
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