https://www.facebook.com/ninetwelveunited/
Filed under: General Problems | Leave a Comment »
FB is destroying VETERAN OWNED BUSINESSES?! EVERY “MAKE US” SHIRT SOLD I’M DONATING 25% INTO THE BARSTOOL FUND!!
Posted on January 9, 2021 by Pharmaciststeve
And your life could be worse !
Posted on January 9, 2021 by Pharmaciststeve
Filed under: General Problems | Leave a Comment »
What happen to Joe Biden following science ?
Posted on January 9, 2021 by Pharmaciststeve
Just after Joe Biden got his SECOND COVID-19 shot, he announced that he is going to mandate that the shots that were in reserve so that people who got their first shot would have inventory so that they can get their second shot on in a time frame as proposed by the original clinical trials. I am not aware of any clinical studies that suggests that get just one shot and/or not getting the second time on the time frame indicated by the clinical trials.
Apparently, he is counting on additional supplies of COVID-19 vaccine becoming available in time, but the initial supply from Pfizer was suppose to be 200 million doses was CUT IN HALF because Pfizer had trouble acquiring raw material to make the COVID-19 vaccine. So there is no guarantee that additional supplies of COVID-19 vaccine will be available when it is needed.
I am not aware of any clinical trials as to the outcome if a pt gets vaccinations produced by two different companies ( Pfizer & Moderna). Will they have the anticipated 95% effective immunity level ?
What is also interesting is the <D> governors requesting those doses being released. It has been reported that Gov Cuomo is sitting on a “boat load” of COVID-19 vaccine that is about to EXPIRE because like how he has treated businesses/schools in NY shutting them down and allowing them to reopen … only to shut them back down. It has been reported that Cuomo decided to give vaccinations to addicts/substance abusers/in rehab ahead of people over 65 y/o. Cuomo is also the governor that mandated – back in the spring – that seniors with COVID-19 be sent back to their nursing homes – which was incapable of dealing with their health issues – and tens of thousands DIED.
Could this just be the PREFACE of what we can expect over the next FOUR YEARS ?
FDA Statement on Following the Authorized Dosing Schedules for COVID-19 Vaccines
Joe Biden to speed release of coronavirus vaccines, ending Trump practice of holding back shots for second dose
WASHINGTON — With COVID-19 surging and vaccinations off to a slow start, President-elect Joe Biden will rapidly release most available vaccine doses to protect more people, his office said Friday, a reversal of Trump administration policies.
“The president-elect believes we must accelerate distribution of the vaccine while continuing to ensure the Americans who need it most get it as soon as possible,” spokesman T.J. Ducklo said in a statement. Biden “supports releasing available doses immediately, and believes the government should stop holding back vaccine supply so we can get more shots in Americans’ arms now.”
Biden’s plan is not about cutting two-dose vaccines in half, a strategy that top government scientists recommend against. Instead, it would accelerate shipment of first doses and use the levers of government power to provide required second doses in a timely manner.
The Trump administration has been holding back millions of doses of vaccine to guarantee that people can get a second shot, which provides maximum protection against COVID-19. Both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines require a second shot after the first vaccination. One-shot vaccines are still undergoing testing.
A recent scientific analysis in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine estimated that a “flexible” approach roughly analogous to what Biden is talking about could avert an additional 23% to 29% of COVID-19 cases when compared to the “fixed” strategy the Trump administration is following. That’s assuming a steady supply of vaccine.
After a glow of hope when the first vaccines were approved last month, the nation’s inoculation campaign has gotten off to a slow start. Of 21.4 million doses distributed, about 5.9 million have been administered, or just under 28%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Biden has already indicated his displeasure with the progress of vaccinations. In a speech last week, before his election victory was certified by Congress, the president-elect said he intends to speed up vaccinations by having the federal government take a stronger role to make sure that vaccines are not only available, but that shots are going into the arms of more Americans.
“The Trump administration plan to distribute vaccines is falling behind—far behind,” Biden said. “If it continues to move as it is now, it’s going to take years, not months, to vaccinate the American people.”
The American Hospital Association estimates that the nation would need to vaccinate 1.8 million people a day, every day, from Jan. 1 to May 31, to reach the goal of having widespread immunity by the summer. That’s also called “herd immunity” and would involve vaccinating at least 75% of the population.
Without spelling out details, Biden said his administration will put in place a much more aggressive vaccination campaign, with greater federal involvement and leadership and the goal of administering 100 million shots in the first 100 days.
He said he and Vice-President elect Kamala Harris have been talking with state and local leaders about a coordinated approach that meshes the efforts of governments at all levels. Among the specifics: opening up vaccination centers and sending mobile vaccine units to hard-to-reach communities.
“The top thing is that there’s not a coordinated national plan,” Biden adviser Dr. Rick Bright told The Associated Press. Bright has a doctoral degree in immunology.
The Biden transition office said its experts believe that pushing out available vaccine as fast as possible will not create problems for people needing their second dose. Biden will make broader use of a Cold War-era law to direct private industry to supply materials for vaccine production, should that become necessary, his office said.
Former Food and Drug Administration head Mark McClellan said he agrees with Biden’s decision, but the increased supply of vaccines has to be coupled with steps to get shots actually administered to people.
“We’re holding back more doses than we really need to,” McClellan said in an interview. But “this needs to be combined with steps to increase the administration of vaccines, or it won’t make much difference.” McClellan, who served under former Republican President George W. Bush, now leads a health policy center at Duke University.
Biden announced his plan after eight Democratic governors wrote the Trump administration on Friday urging it to do as much.
“The federal government currently has upwards of 50% of currently produced vaccines held back,” the governors wrote. “While some of these life-saving vaccines are sitting in Pfizer freezers, our nation is losing 2,661 Americans each day, according to the latest seven-day average. The failure to distribute these doses to states who request them is unconscionable and unacceptable. We demand that the federal government begin distributing these reserved doses to states immediately.”
The letter was signed by Govs. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Gavin Newsom of California, Laura Kelly of Kansas, J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, Tim Walz of Minnesota, Andrew Cuomo of New York, Jay Inslee of Washington, and Tony Evers of Wisconsin.
With the winter wave of the pandemic pushing deaths to record levels, and hospitals overwhelmed in cities large and small, some have called on the government to authorize using just one dose of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. That would indeed confer a boost of immunity.
However, government scientists including Dr. Anthony Fauci have said the vaccines should continue to be used as prescribed under their emergency approval by the FDA. The two-shot regimen provides around 95% protection.
More than 365,000 Americans have died as a result of the pandemic, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The seven-day average positivity rate for the nation has continued to rise since Christmas, and stood at 13.6% on Thursday, according to the COVID Tracking Project. That’s well above the 10% rate considered a marker of widespread contagion.
Biden spokesman Ducklo said the president-elect will share additional details next week on how his administration will engage the pandemic when he takes office on Jan. 20.
Filed under: General Problems | Leave a Comment »
As seen on the web… shared without comment
Posted on January 9, 2021 by Pharmaciststeve
Wikileaks just dumped all of their files online. Everything from Hillary Clinton’s emails, McCain’s being guilty, Vegas shooting done by an FBI sniper, Steve Jobs HIV letter, PedoPodesta, Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Bilderberg, CIA agents arrested for rape, WHO pandemic. Happy Digging! Here you go, please read and pass it on….. https://file.wikileaks.org/file/… These are Clinton’s emails: https://file.wikileaks.org/file/clinton-emails/ Index file! https://file.wikileaks.org/file/?fbclid=IwAR2U_Evqah_Qy2wxNY12FMqFC5dAFUcZL5Kl4FIfQuMFMp8ssbM46oHXWMI Send to everyone you can as fast as you can!
Filed under: General Problems | Leave a Comment »
where should I take this blog ?
Posted on January 9, 2021 by Pharmaciststeve
It was announced today as Biden – as he got his SECOND COVID-19 shot – that he was going to mandate that all vaccine held in reserve so that people who got their first shot would get their second shot … is to be released to everyone to get their first shot.
There are no studies – that I am aware of – that shows that a person getting a COVID-19 from two different manufactures is going to produce a 90%+ effectiveness that is what studies have showed of a person getting the two shots from the same manufacturer.
Biden claimed that he was going to FOLLOW THE SCIENCE… but there is no science to justify this…
I get the opinion that this administration/Congress is going to ram-rod a whole lot of new “controls” – new regulations on the citizens of our country… that are not going to set very well with the majority of citizens. Pelosi & Schumer could care less, because Pelosi has already indicated that this is her last term – she is now 80 and Schumer is up for re-election in 2022 and AOC has already made “some noise” about running for his seat… after all two years ago she defeated another <D> incumbent for the seat that she now holds.. Chuck is currently ONLY 70.
Here is a video dated 09/01/2020 a compilation of media talking heads, “hollywood” and bureaucrats/politicians called for UNREST … etc….etc.. That got what they wanted a few days ago and now they are all outraged that it happened.
I am concerned that some of those “new controls” will be directed at the community and their need for pain management using opiates.
Anyone in the community that believes that the members of administration/Congress that is suppose to represents you… are your basic “dreamers” …they could give a rat’s ass about what you need/want.
I am wondering how long it is before the community wake up. How many petitions have been signed, how many comments have been made during public comment periods on proposed changes, how many times do you have to write to your members of Congress about denial of care …only to get a letter back about the opiate crisis ? AND … nothing has moved in a positive direction more in a NEGATIVE DIRECTION.
Corporations/people spend 9+ million/day lobbying the 535 members of Congress. The last election was estimated that 12-14 BILLION was spent and the Georgia Senate run off was estimated to cost upwards of 500 million. The Georgia election was largely funded by entities OUTSIDE OF THE STATE.
It use to be thought that politicians cared about two things votes and dollars… after what has been said about the past election… what counts is dollars and people who can collude to make sure that the person they want to win… gets sufficient number of votes to win… the total votes being exclusively from living/legally registered voters is just an illusion.
What will be interesting if those handful of states that were the most troublesome this time will do anything to make changes to make the number of votes that they report has any credibility. After the voting mess in Florida in 2000 over their punch card system… everything was changed and this past election they were able to report the number of votes cast a couple of hours after the polls closed.
One infamous politician said one time ” IT TAKES A VILLAGE”… the chronic pain community – when it comes to getting something done – is nothing more than a few wandering souls.
Filed under: General Problems | 5 Comments »
Counterfeit HIV Drug Identified in 3 US Pharmacies
Posted on January 8, 2021 by Pharmaciststeve
Counterfeit HIV Drug Identified in 3 US Pharmacies
Counterfeit Symtuza® (darunavir, cobicistat, emtricitabine, tenofovir alafenamide) has been identified in 3 pharmacies in the US, according to an alert issued by Janssen.
Symtuza is indicated as a complete regimen for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in adults and pediatric patients weighing at least 40kg who have no prior antiretroviral treatment history or who are virologically suppressed (HIV-1 RNA <50 copies/mL) on a stable antiretroviral regimen for at least 6 months, and have no known substitutions associated with resistance to darunavir or tenofovir. The counterfeit products, which were procured from unauthorized distributors, are being investigated by Janssen and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
In a statement, the Company clarified that Symtuza obtained from authorized distributors should be considered safe for use. The authentic product is supplied as yellow to yellowish-brown, capsule-shaped, film-coated tablets debossed with “8121” on one side and “JG” on the other side. If the product does not match this description, it should be reported to the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations (800-551-3989) or Janssen Medical Information (800-526-7736).
Currently, there have been no reports of adverse events related to the use of the counterfeit product. Adverse events related to Symtuza or the counterfeit drug should be reported to FDA’s MedWatch Program or Janssen Medical Information.
Filed under: General Problems | Leave a Comment »
I am getting out of this mess !
Posted on January 8, 2021 by Pharmaciststeve
After listening today of many persons on TV that has had their Twitter, FB, and instagram account censored, suspended or cancelled… https://www.simonandschuster.com/ cancelled a book of a member of Congress that was suppose to be published in June over his support the challenge in Congress two days ago over the last Presidential election.
Our first Amendment right to “freedom of speech” only applies to the government, private businesses can do what they want. Of course, people have the freedom of choice to continue to patronize any such business.
I heard on TV today, a person that works for a mutual fund that had his rather benign post censored and he is cancelling his FB & Twitter accounts. Another commentator on Fox cable – a former secret service agent – stated that he is cancelling his FB & Twitter account and moving over to https://www.parler.com
It has also been stated that these same websites have closed President Trump’s account till at least until Jan 21,2021 and a number of other Trump websites have been taken off line by someone – maybe his ISP. It was just announced on TV that TWITTER has PERMANENTLY SUSPENDED PRESIDENT TRUMP”S ACCOUNT.
Parler is suppose to be a more open/uncensored webpage that is suppose to work like Facebook… I have had my own Parler account that I opened a month or two ago because I saw this coming.
None of us know how many “common folks” are doing the same things… but … I am keeping my future posting to this blog… I own the domain and I would hope that the ISP that I pay to have this domain doesn’t decide to get into censorship.
I am not going to delete my FB or twitter accounts, but they are going to become stagnant …. there is a lot of valuable information for chronic painers on those sites.
It has become obvious that there were numerous closeted RINO Trump haters that are now coming out of the woodwork and they are circling the white house like hungry vultures. They no longer have to create descent in the shadows. Pelosi seemingly the LEAD VULTURE !
They are even trying to pull the 25th Amendment on him… declaring him incompetent .. that that we may not be able to run for an elected office again.
The chronic pain community continues to become more and more divided… one of my favorite things to do is go into FB notifications to find the same post , graphic or video posted on a dozen or more FB pages. If nothing else, it clearly demonstrates how divided the community is.
History has suggested that the community suffers the most when there is a person in power, that has a friend/relative that is a substance abuser or died from a drug overdose… and that describes our incoming President and our VP has been reported when she was a AG of CALF… was a hard ass on substance abuser – especially MJ… So one again we have TWO ATTORNEYS at the head of the administration… throw in a third attorney as AG… and generally attorneys are mostly interested in enforcing the laws and the Controlled Substance Act is still out there since 1970..
IMO, the community has come to a “fork in the road” and either need to create alliances with other non profit groups dealing with chronic health issues who are being restricted in getting their necessary medications… or they need to get ready to accept whatever this new administration is going to shove down your throat.. and it won’t be anything to help you pain.
Here is the gist of the mind set behind the new administration…. do any of you in the community get a idea of where you stand in the future ?
While I was making this post… this video popped up … I would like those “boys” out in SILICON VALLEY … are apparently trying to impose their opinion(s) on a competitor and apparently are seeking law firms to run their competitors out of business. This fellow is the one that announced today on Fox cable that he was closing his FB or Twitter account..
Right now this video is on FB, but I have saved it to my hard drive… and they can’t take it from my computer and I own this web domain.
There is a old saying “keep your friends close and your enemies closer”… there are some in the community that believes that we need to create a “US vs THEM” with those who have mental health issues resulting in substance abuse. Those who have fueled the war on pt/drugs have been pushing the idea since 1970 that Rx opiates creates addicts. The community can present the DOJ/DEA with all the facts that is contrary to “their facts” that align with their agenda. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out where it is going to get you.
I have been a damn good prognosticator in my adult life – started around late 20’s – early 30’s… when I started to really started paying attention to the world around me… I have created several businesses and after 20 years was physically/mentally exhausted and sold out those businesses and retire at 49. This new administration scares the crap out of me… it especially scares me for those in the community. Everyone needs to pay attention to Biden, Harris, Pelosi & Chuck Schumer and maybe AOC/Squad talk and they use the word CONTROL or INCREASED/NEW REGULATIONS. As Schumer stated in the video “CHANGE THE COUNTRY”… they can only change the country thru NEW REGULATIONS. Boys and Girls, this administration will attempt to solve the opiate crisis by cutting controlled substances to one pt at a time that needs a controlled med to treat their health issues. I don’t know if it will some sort of MME daily limits or DEA production quota reduction or BOTH. Remember a <D> controlled Congress passed the Harrison Narcotic Act 1914 – which created the “black drug market” and it was a <D> controlled Congress that passed the Controlled Substance Act 1970 and it was a <D> controlled Congress that failed to renew the DECADE OF PAIN LAW 2000 (passed by a <R> controlled Congress) when it expired in 2009. History would suggest that they could care less about the community ! It was also <D> in the Congress who STRONGLY OBJECTED to the Medicare part D law – that in 2006 started to provide Medicare folks prescription coverage after 41 years of Medicare not providing any coverage.
I am taking a few steps back… I have been blogging for 9 years… and while they may be more people advocating… they are divided among hundreds or thousands of FB pages, Tweets or other places. I will be monitoring the various FB/twitter feed and will be posting a link to this post as a “answer” for abt the next 30 days.
Filed under: General Problems | 12 Comments »
The inside story of Ranbaxy’s dirty drugs scandal
Posted on January 4, 2021 by Pharmaciststeve
The inside story of Ranbaxy’s dirty drugs scandal
Bottle of Lies, a New York Times bestseller reveals how Ranbaxy committed fraud and potentially harmed patients on a global scale
Kumar’s document explained that while the company had slashed production costs and used the cheapest ingredients in those markets, it submitted data from the drugs that had been made for more regulated markets, a dangerous bait- and- switch that concealed the low quality. The report also noted that active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) that failed purity tests had been reblended with good API until it met requirements.
The report noted the “non- availability” in India and Latin America of validation methods, stability data, and bioequivalence reports. In short, Ranbaxy had almost no method for confirming the content of drugs in those markets. For example, the data collected by Thakur’s team showed that of the 163 drug products approved in Brazil since 2000, almost all had been filed with phony batch records and stability data that did not exist.
The report noted that in a majority of regulatory filings, Ranbaxy had “intentionally misrepresented” small research and development batches (some two thousand doses) as exhibit batches one hundred times the size, and then deceptively performed crucial tests for bioequivalence and stability on the smaller, easier- to- control batches. The result was that its commercial- sized batches had not actually been tested before being sold, putting millions of patients at risk.
In an email to Tempest marked “confidential” accompanying the report, Kumar noted that lack of adherence to regulation was only part of the problem. “It appears that some of these issues were apparent over a year ago and I cannot find any documents which sought to address these concerns or resolve the issues.” In closing, he made clear that his ultimate loyalties lay not with the company but with the truth. “I can not allow any information to be used for any dossier unless fully supported by data,” he wrote, adding: “With your permission, I would like to take advice from legal counsel in London as to my current responsibility and indemnity with respect to the above issues.”
In response, Tempest assured Kumar that the company would do the right thing.
Though the picture was grim, Kumar confided to Thakur that he believed he could fix the problems, if given the authority.
Thakur’s findings were not news to Ranbaxy’s top executives. Just ten months earlier, in October 2003, outside auditors started investigating Ranbaxy facilities worldwide. In this case, the audits had been ordered up by Ranbaxy itself. This was a common industry practice: drug companies often hired consultants to audit their facilities as a dry run to see how visible their problems were. If the consultants could find it, they reasoned, then most likely regulators could too.
The fact- finding mission by Lachman Consultant Services left Ranbaxy officials under no illusion as to the extent of the company’s failings. At Ranbaxy’s Princeton, New Jersey, facility, auditors found that the company’s Patient Safety Department barely functioned and training was essentially “non- existent.” The staff had no written protocols for investigating patient complaints, which piled up in boxes, uncategorized and unreported. They had no clerical help for basic tasks like mailing out the patients’ samples for testing. “I don’t think there’s the same medicine in this medicine,” was a common refrain from patients. Even when there were investigations, they were so perfunctory and half- hearted that expiration dates were listed as “unknown,” even when they could easily have been found from a product’s lot number.
*****
After weeks of exhaustive research, Thakur brought his team’s preliminary findings on the Latin American, Indian, and ROW (rest of the world) markets to his boss, Raj Kumar.
It was 7:30 a.m., the time Kumar usually got to work, and they met in his office. The hallways were still quiet. Thakur placed some preliminary spreadsheets in front of Kumar. They showed that numerous drugs had never been tested properly, if at all, and had no underlying data to support the company’s claims. Kumar perused them in silence. “This can’t be right,” he finally said. It seemed impossible that Ranbaxy had filed dossiers on drugs the company hadn’t actually tested. Kumar had never heard of anything like it. “You must have missed data.”
“We’ve looked, and it doesn’t exist,” Thakur insisted.
“You have to go back and check again,” Kumar asserted. “This has got to be wrong.”
To Kumar, the only plausible explanation was that Thakur had either overlooked existing test results or misinterpreted the results he’d found. Otherwise, there was no precedent for what Thakur had uncovered. In the coming weeks, Kumar sent him back to check and recheck so many times that finally Thakur organized a meeting with the team so that Kumar could hear from them directly.
They, too, had been stunned by their own findings and remained at a loss for how to think about what they’d found. “Corruption to me was more Enron, more how you fudge earnings,” Dinesh Kasthuril recalled. Venkat Swawinathan had expected “nepotism and inefficiency.” But doing things that jeopardized people’s lives was another thing altogether.
Once Kumar heard from each member of Thakur’s team, it finally sank in. The company was committing fraud and potentially harming patients on a global scale. He distilled the information into a four- page report for the CEO, Brian Tempest. Though blandly titled “Inadequate Dossiers filed in various countries for various products” and written in the gray lingo of corporate quality assurance, the report was explosive. It laid bare systemic fraud in Ranbaxy’s worldwide regulatory filings. “The majority of products filed in Brazil, Mexico, Middle East, Russia, Romania, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, African Nations, have data submitted which did not exist or data from different products and from different countries.”
An audit of Ranbaxy’s main U.S. manufacturing plant, Ohm Laboratories in New Jersey, found that the company, though required to report adverse events to the FDA, rarely did so. There was no system to capture patient complaints after hours, and no global medical officer to ensure that any potential negative consequences for patients were being monitored. The consultants from Lachman urged Ranbaxy to address these problems globally. Ranbaxy’s initial reaction to the findings was to question the number of hours, and the resulting invoice, that Lachman had sent for its work.
The picture was not a lot rosier overseas. At a plant called Mohali, in India’s northern state of Punjab, auditors found so little control of records that twenty people were authorized to change test results. Over 120 different batch records had been reprinted, which Ranbaxy claimed was due to faulty dot matrix printers that had not been replaced. If the goal of good manufacturing was total control, this was about as wild and careening a picture as one could get.
The head of Lachman later sent a top company official a wide- ranging plan for corrective action. Among the suggestions was to establish a training program for workers, including a module entitled “Creating a Culture of Trust, Ethical Behavior, and a ‘Quality First’ Mindset.” But Ranbaxy refused to implement the proposed ethics training after a company executive deemed it unnecessary.
At 8:30 a.m., the heat already stifling outside, Dinesh Thakur looked around the conference table at his six project managers and saw tired faces. Some had left their homes hours earlier to beat rush-hour traffic and arrive on time. They knew the meeting was important, but didn’t know its agenda. Thakur was about to give his team one of the stranger tasks in the annals of corporate due diligence, but had decided in advance to keep the true reasons for it to himself.
“We have a new assignment from Dr. Kumar,” he began. “He wants to know if we can substantiate all of the data that we have provided to various countries. This is a retrospective review of our portfolio, and he wants to know how confident we are about the information we have provided to various regulatory agencies in the last twenty years.”
The members of his team looked surprised, yet the assignment fell within their wheelhouse. Their job was to map all of Ranbaxy’s data, so it was only logical to find out if it was accurate first.
Thakur directed their attention to a large whiteboard where he’d drawn a graph. On the vertical axis were all the regions of the world where the company sold its drugs. On the horizontal axis were myriad questions. What products were on the market? When were they registered? Where were the actual dossiers used to register the products? Where was the supporting data? How many batches were sold in that market? What facility manufactured them?
Thakur assigned each of his staffers a region of the world. He directed them to compare the company’s raw manufacturing data for the drugs in those markets against the claims made in submissions to regulators. Did the data match up, or were there any discrepancies? Did the submissions comply with local regulations?
A picture of the company’s entire operations had never been pieced together before. Until then, Ranbaxy had been partitioned. Specific groups worked on product development for different regions, but almost never met to compare notes. No one had a complete picture of how— or even where— the company’s drugs were approved. But Thakur had directed his team to make a multidimensional assessment that spread across the entire globe and stretched back years.
Filed under: General Problems | Leave a Comment »
Katherine Eban: Widespread fraud in the generic drug industry
Posted on January 4, 2021 by Pharmaciststeve
Katherine Eban: Widespread fraud in the generic drug industry
https://peterattiamd.com/katherineeban/
“Generics are supposed to be this great leveler. It’s like the democratization of drugs that the rich and the poor alike can have access to for these great cures. To find out…that the companies cashing in on that image are really selling that short in a very devious way, is painful to realize. It’s a real great public health hope that has a very dark underbelly.” — Katherine Eban
In this episode, Katherine Eban, investigative journalist and author of Bottle of Lies, illuminates the prevalence of fraud in generic drug manufacturing which brings into question the idea that generics are identical to brand-name drug as we are lead to believe. Katherine walks us through how this widespread corruption came to be, including the shocking story of one particularly egregious (and unfortunately not uncommon) example of an Indian drug company, Ranbaxy, whose business model was completely dependent on falsifying data in their drug applications to the FDA. We then discuss the subsequent investigation into Indian and Chinese drug manufacturing plants which revealed that nearly 80% of them are tainted with fraud. We conclude this discussion on a positive note with i) how individuals can investigate their own drugs to protect themselves ii) an innovative pharmacy attempting to disrupt the market and iii) some ideas on how to reform to the regulations around generic drugs, the FDA, and more.
Filed under: General Problems | Leave a Comment »
CVS has a pattern of “bullying” staff, as well as flagrantly disregarding the safety of both staff and customers
Posted on January 4, 2021 by Pharmaciststeve
Leaked email reveals CVS district leader instructed pharmacy staff not to tell patients their medications were filled by someone who tested positive for COVID-19
https://www.businessinsider.com/cvs-told-staff-to-hide-worker-covid-19-cases-from-patients-2020-8
- A leaked email from a CVS district leader told staff not to inform patients that their prescriptions were filled by someone who tested positive for COVID-19.
- CVS spokesperson Michael DeAngelis told Business Insider, “It is not our policy to prohibit our pharmacies from informing patients if their prescription was filled when an employee who tested positive for COVID-19 worked in the pharmacy.”
- The Georgia CVS technician who shared the email with Business Insider said workers were threatened with discipline or termination if they told customers about confirmed COVID-19 cases.
-
Fourteen CVS employees across the US told Business Insider that CVS has a pattern of bullying staff and flagrantly disregarding the safety of customers.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
A leaked email revealed a CVS district leader instructed employees not to tell patients that their medications had been filled by someone who tested positive for COVID-19.
CVS spokesperson Michael DeAngelis told Business Insider, “It is not our policy to prohibit our pharmacies from informing patients if their prescription was filled when an employee who tested positive for COVID-19 worked in the pharmacy.”
A Georgia CVS technician shared the internal email with Business Insider. The email from the district leader asked employees to track down which prescriptions were filled by a COVID-19-positive employee and pull them from the shelves. However, if a patient had already picked up one of those prescriptions, the standard policy was to “NOT make an outreach call.”
The technician said workers were threatened with disciplinary action or termination if they told customers that someone in the store had tested positive for COVID-19.
“We were told not to contact anyone or let anyone know,” the technician told Business Insider.
At least 14 CVS employees across the country have reached out to Business Insider and said CVS has a pattern of “bullying” staff, as well as flagrantly disregarding the safety of both staff and customers. Business Insider granted anonymity to all sources over job-security concerns and confirmed their identities.
Staffers said CVS has ignored incidents of potential coronavirus exposure.
DeAngelis confirmed to Business Insider last week that it is CVS’s policy to allow employees to work if they’ve been exposed to someone who tested positive. DeAngelis said CVS allows asymptomatic employees who have not tested positive for COVID-19 to work if they wear surgical masks, self-monitor for symptoms, and have their temperature taken before and after every shift for 14 days after exposure.
Workers are also allowed to request time off to quarantine if exposed to a coworker who tested positive, DeAngelis added.
But after the Georgia technician’s coworker showed symptoms and tested positive, staff who’d worked in close proximity with the coworker were instructed not to get tested “because they couldn’t have anyone else out of work,” the technician said.
Gag rules where employers prohibit workers from speaking out about COVID-19 cases are becoming common, Bloomberg reported. Workers often live in fear of being punished or fired for informing customers of a COVID-19 case at their place of work.
“In many places, workplace exposures are driving the pandemic,” David Michaels, an epidemiologist and professor at George Washington University, told Bloomberg.
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that it was CVS’s policy to allow employees who tested positive for COVID-19 but were asymptomatic to keep working. CVS does allow employees who are exposed to COVID-19-positive individuals to continue working, while also self-monitoring for symptoms. Positive COVID-19 asymptomatic patients are offered 14 days of paid leave.
Clarification: An earlier version of this article implied that an email instructing employees not to tell patients that their medications had been filled by someone who tested positive for COVID-19 came from CVS Health corporate. The email came from a district leader, not from CVS Heath corporate.
Filed under: General Problems | Leave a Comment »