Did you hear the whistle blower on 60 mins. about the mixed up drugs?

[napi21]

Glaxo-Smith-Kline was operating a mfg. facility where QC was nonexistant! Some drugs were labeled wrong, anti bacterial cream was contaminated s\with bacteria, etc! The QC manager for the co. went to inspect the facility and was shocked, but whenshe reported her findings to the VP, expecting the place be shut down until the problems were corrected, nothing happened. After trying all avenues inhouse, she was fired, and turned over her findings to the FDA. GSK admited guilt & paid a $750 million fine.

I worked for a vitaamin mfg. for 14 years, and I guarantee you, if even ONE THING like that had happened in any of our plants, the shipments would have stopped, a recall would have been issued, and the parties responmsible would have been fire! And we were only making OTC vitamins!!!! GSK didn't do any of that!

EVERYONE< PLEASE, make sure you question any time your meds look different, are a different color, shape, size, etc! Most things like that should be caught by the pharmacist filing your script, but NEVER just ignore your suspicions.

[Drale]

1. Yeah I saw that as I was flipping past

Thats a pretty scary thing to happen.

[peacebird]

2. I questioned a pharmacist about my script - he assured me it was right.

I went to the PDR on the counter and he was TOTALLY wrong. Just did not want to admit he was giving me totally the wrong drug. The color and shape were similar but the printing was totaly different.
I got it changed, though he was not happy. It wasn't even a generic vs correct drug prob, it was just plain wrong..... scary.

I have always double checked, ever since my dad got the wrong script for his heart medicine. He got home - opened it up, and immediately called the VA. Dad rarely ever lost his temper, but he definitely made his point to the VA - I do not envy the pharmacist who filled THAT scrip! (that was back in 1980)

[ret5hd]

3. at end of segment, GSK made a statement that no one was harmed...

wasn't that a tacit admission that their drugs are basically useless?

[snagglepuss]

4. My suggestion is to count the pills. I was once prescribed antibitics for

pneumonia that had started to settle on my lungs. I rarely take antibiotics but the amount of pills in the bottle seemed odd. I was too sick to say anyhing to the druggist but when I got home I counted them, something I had never done when I've had a prescription filled. Lo and behold it was just halt the prescription. I was so upset the druggist sent the other half to me by cab.

I can't urge people enough especially when it comes to antibiotics to count the pills because if one doesn't take the the prescribed amount the infection will came back and be even harder to treat.

[Paper Roses]

5. I take 2 medications, thank heaven they are Generic because

I have Medicare with a basic supplement and do not have drug coverage. One of my scripts is for a 90 day supply. Twice I have been shorted. The pharmacy has taken my word for it but it is sure a pain in the butt to have to go back. Sometimes I wonder!

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[TheMadMonk]

17. Man, I'd love to say that. However, on this they probably do have a point.

I have very little time for anti-vaccers, but on this I WILL side with them, however big a twat I believe them to be on the subject of thiomerserol. There have been just too many examples of bad quality control in the medicines and medical supply industry of late to ignore.


Supposedly sterile hypodermics assembled by ungloved hands in less than sterile surroundings.

Children's OTC liquid pain medications so badly mixed that single doses HAVE killed.

Other medications (particularly those supplied to the "alternative" market) have repeatedly been demonstrated to contain no theraputic agent at all or only a fraction of what would be a suitable theraputic dose.

One might ask, why is it that vets actually weight their patients and calculate doses accordingly, but people doctors use a fucking AGE CHART to determine dosage?


Fortunately for the majority, the human animal is a fairly resiliant creature. We can often overcome disease even when our medicine later proves to be nothing but sugar water. And the difference between a theraputic and lethal dose of most medicines is enough that most of us will survive low to mid level overdosing for the course of a standard prescription even when we're sick as dogs.

[napi21]

9. When did THAT change? I said in the OP that I worked for

a vitamin mfg. for 14 yers. 1977-early 1992 We NEVER had preannounced visits from the FDA, and when they showed up at the door, our entire mgmt. went into hyper mode. They never found any prolems, and we all worked hard to make sure there were no problems, but none the less, it always felt like final exam day. At that time, there was a lot of respect throughout the industry for what's called ethical drug manufacturers and the extreme controls they had to have to mae sure there were none of the insane things described on 60 Mins. ever happen at any of them. We had some close friends who worked for Ciba-Geigy who makes vitamins, OTC drugs & pharmaceuticals. They were astonishingly strict with controls in every area.

I suspect things have changed since those days because so many legislators have insisted on reducing the size of gov't so all inspection agencies have been reduced down to an ineffectual size.

[MedicalAdmin]

25. "Pharmaceutical grade" is a joke these days.

The new standard is GMP - general manufactoring practices certified. The facilities that use GMP certification use an INSANE level of quality control from disolve tests to temp monitoring of every stage of the process. I know of one company that shut down an entire product line until they found where the efficacy was being changed between the raw ingredients and the final bottle and it turned out that when the powders were going into the capsules they were traveling too fast down a small incline and picking up too much heat from the friction. Criminy, THAT's detective work. They literally checked every area of the process and test efficacy at every stage and step of the manufactoring process.

And yes, part of our medical practice is concerned with quality control and so we check out facilities about once a year. GMP is the way to go if only for the fact that they have 3rd party testing labs show up at random several times a year and take samples not only of finished product but also of active product facilities and lines.

Frankly too many people die because of corporate malfeasance and drug manufacturers are pretty high on the death count list.

[Name removed]

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[Odin2005]

8. I remeber seeing a story on Discovery health about a boy who was mistakenly given methadone...

...instead of methyphenidate (generic ritalin) and it killed him. :-(

Though that was a pharmacy error, not this horrid BS.

[MedicalAdmin]

26. Yikes!

Interesting blog by the way.

[RKP5637]

10. Thanks for posting this! n/t

[alp227]

11. i'm watching that right now. SHOCKING STUFF

and hey doesn't Avandia, GSK, or one of those brands sponsor 60 Minutes regularly? you see the commercial for the handihaler regularly after Russ Mitchell's "moneywatch" segment. (on edit) read the story here

[Skink]

12. I liked the comment that we pay more for drugs because of the quality.

so I guess the really bad mistakes are going to countries that get them cheaper.

[MedicalAdmin]

27. Bwahahahahaha.

Good one. Although much of the EU and Canada seem to have tighter controls on things like this.

Although, yes, the really bad shit ends up getting sold to the 3rd world. After all who cares if some poor folks die?

[aquart]

13. GSK doesn't know NOT to fire a worker with evidence?

One Wall Street law firm fired a secretary for complaining that subpoenaed evidence was all mixed up, stapled in the wrong order to the wrong report, a chaotic mess. She was fired. Two hours later she was telling all of it to a District Attorney.

[Kolesar]

20. She and her attorneys bagged $93 million of the $750 million penalty

:thumbsup: Whistle blower

[MedicalAdmin]

28. There mistake was not to complete step two.

Usually what they do is fire the person and then they kill them. I guess the goon squad didn't get the memo from legal early enough.

[applegrove]

15. Yeah that was really scary.

[Missy Vixen]

16. Always, always, always check your prescription meds

I can't agree more with the OP. For those of us who've received an incorrect amount of meds or incorrect dosage, the side effects can range from annoying to deadly.

It would be nice if the Glaxo-Smith-Kline mistake never happened again, but I have to wonder how many day's profit that was. I'm betting one or less...

[arikara]

18. I don't trust them at all

and won't take prescription meds. My Mr with a heart problem and diabetes is on several meds and I watch them like a hawk. If the doctors add something, I check it out before he takes it. Several times we have refused prescriptions. Never ever accept something new on the market, just read the article below to see why. Even the old meds can cause problems when they outsource for ingredients or production... like the heparin injections wiht ingredients from China that made people sick a couple of years ago. The Mr was unfortunate enough to be given that in prep for surgery, got really sick from it and they totally denied that the batch he was given was tainted. But he had every symptom on the list.

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2011/01/deadly-medicine-201101

Prescription drugs kill some 200,000 Americans every year. Will that number go up, now that most clinical trials are conducted overseas—on sick Russians, homeless Poles, and slum-dwelling Chinese—in places where regulation is virtually nonexistent, the F.D.A. doesn’t reach, and “mistakes” can end up in pauper’s graves? The authors investigate the globalization of the pharmaceutical industry, and the U.S. Government’s failure to rein in a lethal profit machine.

[Bozita]

19. link to video ...

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/60minutes/main3415.shtml?tag=hdr;snav

[DemReadingDU]

21. Thanks, I missed the first 5 minutes. n/t

[Rage for Order]

22. Leave it to the British

GSK is a British company, after all. Maybe they're still bitter about the whole 1776 thing?

[MedicalAdmin]

29. Transnational corporations are as much identified with a country

as a ship is with the country whose flag it flies. It's a rush to the bottom and the place they currently have some offices have NOTHING to do with how criminal they act.

But yah - they are still a little pissed about the entire 1776 thing. They regret sending out their 3rd string troops to deal with us when they should have sent out the first string. Lucky for us that they did.

[Brickbat]

23. The sad and disgusting thing is is that this is going on in every industry. Quality control has been

gutted in manufacturing, transportation, food and agriculture, publishing...customer service and quality have been replaced with shareholder service and quantity. But then, that's capitalism.

[bluesmail]

24. If I can afford to I pay for Brand

they're actually scrutinized,, (I think). The pharmacists get paid to push the generics. This could be a reason.

[MedicalAdmin]

30. Dude that is the wrong and a potentially deadly assumption.

SGK is NOT generic. So pay for the brand name if you want. As for me, I think that it is more likely that a small generic manufactorer, being a smaller and likely more responsive company will do a better job. This of course assumes that the company in question is not in china or india as they have zero QC.