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- Oh sure, blame the evil corporations and Republicans but most of you don't know (because the media won't tell you) about the FDA's Margaret Hamburg and a "... report, commissioned by Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa (R., Calif.), details the dramatic drop in the production of generic injectable drugs since Hamburg was confirmed as FDA chief in May 2009. Upon taking office, Hamburg promised an aggressive effort to enforce the FDA's stringent manufacturing standards. In 2010, Hamburg's officials issued 673 warning letters to drugmakers and other companies: a 42 percent increase from 2009. In 2011, the agency issued 1,720 warning letters: a further increase of 156 percent." so what do you think this caused? Well read the rest and then do your own research:
"The impact of Hamburg's enforcement actions was swift and dramatic. Of America's five largest manufacturers of generic injectable drugs—APP, Hospira, Teva, Bedford, and Sandoz—the latter four were effectively forced to simultaneously take significant production off-line in order to deal with FDA warnings. As a result, their production of generic injectables declined by 30 percent, contributing to a massive shortage. "Pharmaceutical companies, despite running available production lines around the clock, are now forced to decide which drugs to continue producing and which to stop producing, and whether to cease production temporarily or permanently," Issa writes." So who's to blame? - Reply to this comment
- The government doesn't really want this to pass. These are the people they care the least about, the ones that they see as a draw on society. They are expendable to them. This is the beginning of "selective medical care". Old, sick, crippled, gone.
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- There are 3rd party distributors buying up these drugs and then holding them in reserve until desperate parents drive the price through the roof.
But hey, that's capitalism. That's what we want, right? Let the markets run themselves?
It's a shame, middle-men (sharlatans) are creating artificial shortages to make enormous profits without adding anything (ANYTHING) of value to the economy or society. Children are litteraly dying because of this.
And yet, we cannot muster the political will to put an end to this.
Really, it's a very sad endictment of what is wrong with our nation. - Reply to this comment
- If Senate Majority Leader Harry Reed ever said "It's been that way for 230 years" to his superior in private industry he would not make it to the parking lot before his name is removed from his parking place. Do all the rest of the members of the Senate and House have their heads where the sun doesn't shine?
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- You can bet if this were Boehner's or Reid's child, something would have been done about this a long time ago.
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- If anyone has ever wondered if big business and politicians place the almighty dollar above human life, even the lives of children, you can stop your wondering now.
Absolutely criminal.
And it's also absolutely unacceptable for any politician to say, "That's the way we've always been", when asked why it's taking so long for legislation to be passed to fight this kind of insanity. - Reply to this comment
- These horse-trader politicians are getting the trots just thinking that they would have to upset their Big Pharma sugar daddies on this one, they know that if they stonewall this legislation, they will look like the $h!t$ that they are before the American people, but if they embrace it they will have some "'splainin' to do" to the puppeteers who pull their strings. I hope this bag of mung blows up in their faces, and they find no place to hide from the stench.
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- Republicans and Democrats, how does this effect the quality of life in patients and wellbeing of the closest family members? How does this come across to the higher authority... our father?
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- We need a government run and financed pharmaceutical manufacturing plant for orphan drugs, the ones no big pharma will produce because they make little to no profit on. It can be funded by an excess profits tax on pharmaceutical companies. And if a company decides it's too expensive (read: not enough profit) to continue manufacturing a drug and let the government plant make it - they lose the patent on it immediately, along with any future profits from its use for any treatment (sometimes drugs in limited use for one disorder turn out to be useful for a much more common problem.)
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- This Bill has been sitting in the Senate for over 14 Months.
If the President and the Democrats REALLY wanted it would have been on the floor for a vote in 7 months. Obama Care was in the Senate Finance Committee in August 2009 and the Democrats pushed it through in March 2010.
So lets stop the BS. - Reply to this comment
