Cancer's Hidden Danger: Bad Medicine?

By: Sharyl Attkisson
Topics: Field Notes

(CBS)

Sharyl Attkisson is an investigative correspondent for CBS News.

I can only imagine that they tell themselves the cheap, illegally imported chemotherapy drugs are safe – that they're just as good as any of the more expensive versions that are sold legally in the United States.

That's the only thing that makes it even slightly comprehensible as to why trusted oncologists – cancer doctors – would opt to buy delicate, lifesaving I.V. chemotherapy drugs on-the-cheap from a source in which there's no way to know whether the medicine has been produced properly, transported properly or stored properly. Even if the drugs somehow could be guaranteed safe, the story is still shocking: Doctors aren't passing along the savings (for buying the cheap, imported drugs) to their ill patients. Instead, they're pocketing the profits.

How? By charging Medicare and Medicaid full price and keeping the change: As much as $1,000 per patient per treatment. There's no way to know just how many American oncologists have been taking advantage of this system. But of all the ones who have been solicited by the foreign Canadian pharmacy that sells the drugs, only one was upset enough to blow the whistle.

Dr. Suby Rao works in a busy Chicago-area practice. He knew better than to order illegally imported drugs, no matter how "cheap" they may be. He never considered ordering such medicine even for a moment. But when he struck up a conversation with a colleague and discovered that colleague was actually using the questionable medicine, it "kept him up at night." Rao says the drugs from unknown sources could be impotent, toxic, fake or contaminated. He says there's no way to know how many cancer patients may have been hurt or killed by the medicine, since casualties would likely be blamed on their cancer.

After laying awake enough nights, Dr. Rao found a way to get the government interested (through the Medicare fraud angle). He helped play detective and exposed dozens of doctors. Will their patients ever know? The FBI and HHS, who are investigating the cases, apparently are having offending doctors reimburse Medicare for their fraudulent billing. But the first doctor to pay up has been allowed to keep his medical license, promising never to repeat the offense. Rao finds that a frightening prospect: that physicians who – he believes – put their patients at risk for profit would simply be allowed to pay a fee, and not have to tell their patients that their health may have been compromised. That they will now be "trusted" to behave honestly in the future. It's something to think about if you or a family member has the misfortune of having to go through the trauma and heartache of chemotherapy in an oncologist's office.

The cancer is bad enough. But how do you know whether the drugs are really safe?

Sharyl Attkisson
Sharyl Attkisson is a CBS News investigative correspondent based in Washington. All of her stories, videos and blogs are available here.
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by grsmvs May 31, 2008 4:18 PM EDT: I was appalled by what I saw last night. To call this "investigative reporting" is an egregious overstatement. Health Canada, the Canadian version of the FDA, has standards as high or higher than that of the FDA. Health Canada has ensured that drug prices in Canada are reasonable, and this accounts for the steady stream of Americans coming to Canada to purchase the same drugs, manufactured by the same companies, that are available in the US.
The difference in Canada is that, unlike the US, medical care is on a "not for profit basis". Doctors who prescribe drugs make no money from the process. My wife went through chemotherapy last year at no cost to us, using three of the drugs mentioned in your report.
Where was CBS News when your Congress and Senate passed a Medicare act guaranteeing that "Big Pharma" would make huge profits on the sale of drugs to your government. Given that a major chunk of the advertising each night on your broadcast is for prescription drugs one wonders about your objectivity.
Next time check your facts!!!; Reply to this comment


by tombertoni May 31, 2008 1:45 PM EDT: I am a Physical Therapist and hold an MBA in Healthcare administration. Drugs form Canada are THE SAME as the drugs here. They are produced by the same manufacturers in the same factories and labs. The only reason they cost more in America is that our legislators were bought off by the pharmaceutical industry and wrote their own legislation to preclude and price negotiations between Medicare and the drug makers. A common sensical solution to this problem would be for Medicare to negotiate paying $3500 for the $4000 cancer medication (that cost $2900 in Canada) then the physician can make out $500 better and medicare can save $500 and the pharmaceutical company will still profit, just without avarice.
Thomas Bertoni MSPT, MBA; Reply to this comment


by katoddie May 30, 2008 10:26 PM EDT: Sharyl,
I was particularly disturbed by your comments regarding the Chemotherapy Drugs being ordered cheaper with profits being pocketed by physicians here in the U.S.
Perhaps your ''investigative'' reporting wasn''t really what you claimed it to be.
You should have stuck to the real facts which were that indeed the medications are cheaper in Canada; and physicians in the U.S. are illegally pocketing the profit. By suggesting that the drugs themselves are unsafe and improperly handled, prepared, etc. you are unnecessarily promoting hysteria amongst the public without giving them all of the facts.
First of all, Canada is NOT the third world country the media suggests it is. In fact, the drug industry there is probably regulated much more closely than it is here. The large Drug Companies here are equally represented in Canada as well. The biggest problem you omitted is that the FDA is upset that they are not the ones pocketing the money.
And that is what it all comes down to; the FDA and the Drug Companies in the U.S. having no control over the money. This is the ONLY reason why it was deemed illegal to purchase drugs from Canada to begin with.; Reply to this comment