Tainted Drug Scandal: China Makes Arrests, Seizes 77 Million Capsules In Crackdown Of Pills Made From Industrial Waste

BEIJING -- Chinese state media say police have arrested nine people and detained 54 others in a crackdown on chromium-tainted gel capsules made from industrial waste.

The scandal is the latest to rock China's pharmaceutical industry, which suffers from abundant fakery and substandard ingredients.

The official Xinhua News Agency said late Sunday that police have seized 77 million gel capsules and shuttered 80 production lines.

The report said police also arrested a township official in northern China's Hebei province who allegedly ordered the torching of a gel capsule factory owned by his brother in an apparent attempt to evade the crackdown.

There have been no reports of illness of death so far from the tainted gel capsules.

Comments

[El Rondo]

12:29 AM on 05/02/2012

Hey hey FDA how many people did you kill today?

What's the difference between the FDA and al qeda? Al qeda have killed about 20 million less people.

[TurnToTheLeft]

04:28 PM on 04/26/2012

We are the dogs now.

[El Rondo]

06:59 PM on 04/24/2012

I think that the right wing militias need to hear about all the FDA corruption. Cut off the head and the body will die.

[Gronkie]

11:58 PM on 04/23/2012

But according to Big Pharma, we should really be worried about the drugs coming in from Canada at cut-rate prices.

[WickedPickle]

09:44 PM on 04/23/2012

That's alright, send 'um over here to the States... We'll eat 'um like candy.

[stormbringer56]

06:01 PM on 04/23/2012

does any product come out of China that isn't poisoned and or tainted in some lethal way? pay attention people this is what can happen here if we are not careful....profit over people

[Pod-gers]

09:24 PM on 04/23/2012

American Red Cross spread Hep-C.

[Lowell Roderick]

05:51 PM on 04/23/2012

Gel capsules. That doesn't tell me much. What do the gel capsules consist of ? Vitamin E, fish oil? What? Give us information. Not just headlines. Thanks heyyyyy?

[observer9]

05:32 PM on 04/23/2012

The great mystery we're left with--what product(s) were in the gelcaps? There's no claim to openness if we don't know that. No one was willing to discuss that with reporters?

[El Rondo]

04:04 PM on 04/23/2012

From Medical Holocaust: http://medicalholocaust.blogspot.com/2012/04/toxic-prescription-drugs-come-from.html

Toxic Prescription Drugs Come From China FDA Has Only 2 Inspectors Watching Drug Factories in China

The FDA has only two inspectors for medical products in China, the country to which much of the drug industry is moving its manufacturing and R&D facilities. The FDA confirmed the number at the request of BNET, following reports that Pfizer (PFE), AstraZeneca (AZN), Eli Lilly (LLY) and Novartis (NVS) were moving a variety of functions to the country.

With just two people to inspect 714 facilities, it would take each individual staff member almost exactly one year to visit each site once, with no days off. Or, collectively, it would take about two years for the FDA to visit each site once, at a rate of one visit per day.

Failure to inspect foreign drug labs and factories carries a high price. In 2008, 81 Americans died from tainted heparin, a blood thinner, that was manufactured in China. The FDA has continued to approve drugs manufactured by the Indian company Ranbaxy despite finding that the firm had faked test results submitted to the federal agency.

[docmon7]

02:01 AM on 04/30/2012

We should buy nothing from China. Unfortunately the big corporations will use China for cheap labor and there is nothing we can do. All pharmaceuticals should have clear labels re country of origin for contents and for the components of contents.

[Jan Harper]

04:02 PM on 04/23/2012

In America they would find a way to market the tainted pills. We already printed the labels afterall.

[Tony Baja]

01:45 PM on 04/23/2012

I'll say one thing to leave with.............At least China is NOT covering this UP.........They are being open about it, and going public with it, and they deal severely with these type of tactics, when they want to...........but still, the Amwerican public will rush to their local store and keep buying these products, because the FDA is NOT putting a HOLD on these products.......

I'll leave China with a thank you for letting us know......... but after this aticle it may go unknown to everyone else.

[El Rondo]

04:09 PM on 04/23/2012

The head of China's FDA was executed for taking bribes. FDA official in the US who take bribes get promoted.

http://fdacorruption.blogspot.com/

[observer9]

05:00 PM on 04/23/2012

Tony--The article doesn't say who blew the whistle. This is the country that sells prisoners' organs, distributes tainted vitamins and numerous other medicines. a country that notoriously violates civil rights. Etc. You may be a little optimistic giving the Chinese govenment credit for openness in this pharmaceutical scandal.

I do recall that Bayer sent tainted babies' milk to China, so is any country above endangering human health for profit? And of course our government allows its citizens to pay pharmaceutical companies more than people in other countries pay for life-sustaining drugs.

Why does anyone believe Republican politicians when they say we'll all benefit when business has less regulation? Look at the record.

[Tony Baja]

03:09 PM on 04/24/2012

After looking at the article again it says "Chinese state media say police have arrested nine people and detained 54 others in a crackdown on chromium-tainted gel capsules made from industrial waste."

So the government is cooperating with this investigation, whether who did or who did not go to the authorities.............................wait, I hear a knocking at my door....oh wait, they are pounding NOW!

[leanne mcivor]

01:21 PM on 04/23/2012

Consuming anything for yourself and your pet is risking your health and safety - boycott anything from this barbaric country - they cannot be trusted!

[pinkindie]

11:35 AM on 04/23/2012

Isn't that grand? And 90% of the vitamins on U.S. shelves come from CHINA.

[Tony Baja]

01:25 PM on 04/23/2012

it's 90%, I said 60% on another blog, now I stand corrected

[sugarpops]

01:59 PM on 04/23/2012

Far from the truth, it is only the 90% of the synthetic Vitamin C, 50% of the asprin and 35% of the Tylenol, Vitamins A, B12 and E.
Look for the made in USA on lables or buy Organic Vitamins.

[observer9]

05:02 PM on 04/23/2012

I've read that pharmaceuticals that say "Made in the USA" get many of their ingredients from . . guess where?

[Blackwing]

11:15 AM on 04/23/2012

Anyone who eats ANYTHING from China is nuts. The corporations don't care and they try to sneak Chinese products into all kinds of things. It's more important than ever to thoroughly read the labels of things we buy. For instance, I used to buy bags of mixed dried fruit at Costco until they started including fruit from China. I'm sure the Republicans would love to get rid of product ingredient labels. When you eat out you probably consume a lot of Chinese poison, especially at fast food places.

[Tony Baja]

01:27 PM on 04/23/2012

The real harmful issue is this, almost all of some chemicals in products labeled made in the USA, have their ingredients made in China, but the product is made in the USA.
Scarey.........We had FDA oversight on China products for 2 years, but it was cancelled and noby seemed to know the difference.

[El Rondo]

04:20 PM on 04/23/2012

Pig Pharma is so greedy that they are in countries like China for the cheap labor and freedom from inspection. Big pharma has been shipping jobs over seas for decades. Since they and Monsanto own the FDA they don't care a lick about safety and since Eric Holder is a wimp nobody will go to jail. There was more enforcement during the Bush years and we know what a corporate puppet he was with his Medicare part D giveaway.

The death toll from bad drugs is being covered up by the medical industry. China is corrupt and it has become a dreadful culture but the US is probably as bad. At least the Chinese government kills bribe takers. We reward them.

[BarelyLucid]

11:04 AM on 04/23/2012

A few years ago babies were getting sick and many died from tainted formula in China. The executives were later executed for their crimes. I would have thought that would have been a deterrent for other executives, sadly it appears to have no effect on China's business ethics.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/22/china-baby-milk-scandal-death-sentence

[Bill4319]

12:15 PM on 04/23/2012

LOL... The Chinese have learned business ethics well from their American teachers!!!

[mrbudbud]

02:53 PM on 04/23/2012

I totally agree. Too many countries are taking their lessons from the ALMIGHTY US.
GREED is rampant and human nor animal lives matter as long as they pull in the dollars.

[Tony Baja]

01:30 PM on 04/23/2012

You remember that, good for you..... we gained FDA oversight with the new administartion for products made in China, but then a new congress overturned that legislation...
but that baby formula protein ingredient (that was actually a fertilizer) was also added in alot of the protein drinks too..... and other ingredients.... and yeah China wanted to clean it up, and urged the FDA oversight, but it just was NOT business friendly in the USA.