Drugs are products that harm people in this country just like any other good that is sold for profit, and we monitor prescription drugs and both the FDA and Big Pharma here and post periodically about the dangers facing Americans today as they take drugs prescribed by doctors and dispensed at hospitals, clinics, dentists as well as at pharmacies and drug stores.
We will continue to do that, of course, but investigative journalist Hansen is doing much more: in a series of stories detailing his extensive investigation into Big Pharma and the dangers of prescription drugs, Chris Hansen at Dateline NBC has discovered important information that everyone in this country should know.
Go here to view all his videos from The Hansen Files here (it’s a six part series).
Consider this: the drugs that go before the FDA for approval are supposed to be extensively tested. First, in labs. Then, on animals, Finally, on humans who agree to be testing subjects on these not-yet-approved drugs. These are called “drug trials,” and you may have seen advertisements asking people to participate.
Which brings us to drug trial outsourcing to foreign countries. Outsourcing jobs in various industries to India and other countries isn’t just popular for car makers or even law firms, now it’s commonplace for Big Pharma to outsource their drug trials.
Why? It’s cheaper to have drug trials overseas, the human subjects don’t ask for as much money to take the risk. Also, the other countries don’t regulate the drug trials like the United States requires. This is very helpful because what happens is that Big Pharma signs a contract with the foreign company to do the drug trial.
Big Pharma just pays money and gets test results. Running those tests, gathering those subjects, and (here’s the key) vetting those subjects will be done by the foreign firm under foreign law. Bingo.
What this means to you, and you really need to watch Hansen’s report for details here, is that the drugs that the Food and Drug Administration has approved for your use may have had approval based upon overseas drug trials that aren’t trustworthy.
Sometimes the overseas drug trials have people who don’t tell the truth to the company, getting into trials because they are desperate for cash. Other times, they sign up for several overlapping trials, because again they need the money and they aren’t concerned about their health risks or how the dovetailing tests might scew results – they need cash for basic things like food for their children.
Bottom line: not only can we not trust drugs that have not been okayed by the FDA, it’s becoming more and more apparent that we cannot trust drugs that HAVE been approved by the FDA.
Be careful out there and if you or a loved one believes that a drug might be harmful in some way, go see your physician immediately. People die and suffer serious injury from prescription drugs everyday.
