Outsource Your Drugs???

T

toby

Junior Member
The evil empire will crush the drug compaines!!

>>Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Thursday that it is all "geared up" for a "significant" hike in drug sales as a result of its plan to sell generic medicines for $4 a prescription. On a conference call with reporters, William Simon, executive vice president, said that the company -- known for its technological and logistical expertise -- expects a volume onslaught. "Our pharmacy system is very, very capable of rapidly processing prescriptions," he said. Wal-Mart also is staffing up for new customers and is planning to launch a national advertising campaign to promote the plan

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Sto...A-6A90482E4848}&dist=newsfinder&siteid=google
 
I haven't seen where these drugs are supposed to be coming from. Wait 'til people start getting sick -- or dying -- from poor quality drugs. Generics are not all the same, despite what they try to claim.
 
What do you mean, specifically, us? Phenphen should never have been approved, IMHO, and I'm glad it's been withdrawn. I don't know to what extent it was sold as a generic.
 
Thorn said:
What do you mean, specifically, us? Phenphen should never have been approved, IMHO, and I'm glad it's been withdrawn. I don't know to what extent it was sold as a generic.
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My point is just that we have no absolute guarantee that non generic drugs approveed by our FDA are really safe for us. Vioxx is another one, I think there have been around 8 in the past few years that have been pulled for safety reasons. Generics have gone thru the patent expiring process so have been used for many years and have a track record.
 
Thorn said:
I haven't seen where these drugs are supposed to be coming from. Wait 'til people start getting sick -- or dying -- from poor quality drugs. Generics are not all the same, despite what they try to claim.
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I take it, then, that you approve of strong government regulation of the pharmaceutical industry. More authority for the FDA and the like, yes?
 
uscitizen said:
My point is just that we have no absolute guarantee that non generic drugs approveed by our FDA are really safe for us. Vioxx is another one, I think there have been around 8 in the past few years that have been pulled for safety reasons. Generics have gone thru the patent expiring process so have been used for many years and have a track record.
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OK, I see what you mean now. The thing is, a dose of a generic drug would be as described on the label, but the manufacturing process may not at all resemble the original formula. The drug itself is what is approved by the FDA, but it is only a part of a pill or capsule. The rest includes the vehicle, which enables absorption, and the remainder is filler, coloring, etc. Those are not really regulated, and can cause some problems on their own. That's why I was concerned about just where those generics might be manufactured. Some may even be less effective because the formula used in manufacture, aside from the drug itself (that's what "freebase" is, BTW) may render the pill far less effective than the original.
 
OrnotBitwise said:
I take it, then, that you approve of strong government regulation of the pharmaceutical industry. More authority for the FDA and the like, yes?
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I'd like to see them become more responsible, frankly. The politicizing of this body concerns me enormously. Political appointments seem to have no concern for who might do the best job.
 
Can't disagree with ya on the generics lack of verification for strength and such, but we have the same problem with patent medicines as well.
imho the FDA works more for the drug industry protecting it's patentsmore than it does for us. And "fast tracking" drug approvals so the industry can start making money on them sooner.
I doubt but can stand corrected that generic drugs are any more dangerous that patent ones.
 
uscitizen said:
imho the FDA works more for the drug industry protecting its patents more than it does for us. And "fast tracking" drug approvals so the industry can start making money on them sooner..
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I know that it often seems to be like that, but if you were involved in drug development, believe me you wouldn't see it that way! Many of the problems that ultimately arise with approved drugs, like Vioxx, for instance, is that the side effects were completely unanticipated. Those are developing long-term effects that don't show up during the testing process at all. It may have been that acute testing showed no effects on cardiovascular function, which was not addressed by the drug's purpose. Alternatively, people sometimes have that " if some is good then more is better" attitude and take too much or too long, and this too can have dire consequences.

I doubt but can stand corrected that generic drugs are any more dangerous than patent ones.
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Not inherently more dangerous, just potentially less effective. What concerns me most about this WalMart proposal is that the manufacture might indeed take place in China. I don't know about you but I've been extremely unimpressed by the quality of goods produced there, and in fact have stopped buying anything manufactured in China unless I really absolutely do need it and can't find a US-made item (or elsewhere where I have confidence).
 
How lame, maybe the approve drugs so that they will help people sooner and it has nothing to do with money. Guess you are opposed to the fast track of the morining after pill? LOL One drug we know that does cause death.
 
toby said:
maybe the approve drugs so that they will help people sooner and it has nothing to do with money.
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This is frequently an issue with drugs being developed to treat terminal diseases such as AIDS and some types of cancers. People who are facing certain death are far less concerned with potentially unpleasant side effects, and are willing to take more risks in treatments to help them. The downside of that is that sometimes the drugs don't help as much as hoped, or even at all (does anybody remember the big Interferon hope a few years ago?), and might be taken in place of others, also in development, that could actually do some good. We've reached a point in pharmacology where nothing is simple anymore, if it ever was, and the effort to develop the perfect treatment, including the perfect drug to combat a disease, is increasingly massive and complex. The more we learn, the more questions we realize there exist.
 
I am not a tinfoil type thinking there is a cure for cancer that the drug industry is holding onto. but in illnesss and suffering there is profit.
 
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