Thread: Are Your Drugs Safe??!

Poor Quality Control In The Pharmaceutical Industry: A Report
Will Brink

So you’re at home watching the news…

“The reason pharmaceutical drugs are inherently safer then nutritional supplements is due to the fact drugs produced by the pharmaceutical industry are regulated by the FDA” says the talking head on the 6 O clock news. That’s the standard mantra people are told, and unfortunately all too many believe. It’s also false. The general message to consumers is, the extensive regulation by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) makes products produced by the pharmaceutical industry inherently safer then nutritional supplements, an industry often singled out by the media for attack.

One key point often made during such biased attacks, is the claim the pharmaceutical industry has high standards of quality control – due in large part to FDA regulation – while the supplement industry (due to lack of FDA regulation as the logic goes…) suffers from poor quality and or poor quality control (QC). Unfortunately, the total story would take up a book (and has!) but even giving some insights into how people are manipulated into thinking they are safe using “FDA approved” drugs when the easy-to-find facts show that’s often not the case…

The intent of this article is not to attempt to show the pharmaceutical industry and inherently bad per se, or the “unregulated” supplement industry as perfect, but to let people see the reality that the pharmaceutical industry is rife with quality control issues that so far, have kept below the radar of the average person. But why you ask?

Biased Reporting: The Norm

The pharmaceutical industry often claims the inflated prices of their drugs – especially in the US – are due to the cost of the FDA approval process, research and development (R&D) and other costs. Indeed, drug development costs are extremely high, and getting FDA approval, expensive and a process in need of revamping to decrease costs and get more potentially life-saving drugs to people faster. However, what they fail to disclose for example is the industry spends considerably more on advertising and promotion then they do on research. That is, they have learned that advertising directly to consumers is more profitable then actually doing research. Although numbers vary, some researchers estimates the U.S. pharmaceutical industry spends almost twice as much on promotion as it does on research and development (R&D). Make no mistake, pharmaceutical advertising dollars influences media coverage, both to overstate the dangers of “unregulated” supplements and generally ignore the various discretions made by the pharmaceutical industry that put millions of lives at risk, and cost lives yearly.

We are not talking small change here either; In 2004 the industry spent an estimated $33.5 billion on promotion costs in an increasingly tough economy that media outlets have to compete for. Spending has gone up considerably since that time, with increases in R&D spending not keeping pace. Direct-to-consumer advertising is now big business, as anyone reading this has probably noticed how many TV ads they see, magazine ads, and so forth advising people to “talk to their doctor” regarding what ever drug is being advertised. It does not stop there however as the billions spent on promotion by the pharmaceutical industry even effects what gets published in peer- reviewed science/medical journals that are supposed to be objective publications not influenced by outside sources. One recent study entitled, “Does pharmaceutical advertising affect journal publication about dietary supplements?” examined that issue. The authors extensive research concluded “These data are consistent with the hypothesis that increased pharmaceutical advertising is associated with publishing fewer articles about dietary supplements and publishing more articles with conclusions that dietary supplements are unsafe.” (1)

Quality Control Issues Are Common:

Cont Here: Poor Quality Control In The Pharmaceutical Industry

i only use FDa approved gears