"Walmart's $4 Drugs Coming From Indian Company Whose Products Have Been Banned In US & Canada", page 1

Usually when something seems too good to be true, it probably is:

www.wakeupwalmart.com...

Wal-mart is heavily promoting a program of 30-day supplies of generic drugs for $4, pointing to the program as an indicator of the company's leadership on making healthcare more affordable. To profit on $4 dollar prescriptions, Walmart is importing drugs from foreign countries, including India.[1] Walmart competitor Costco went a different direction in late 2006, when it ended its $4 dollar prescription drug plan because it was losing money selling prescription drugs at such a low price.[2] Costco switched to selling 100 pills for $10.

One of Walmart's Indian drug suppliers, Ranbaxy Laboratories, LTD, has been repeatedly investigated by the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Justice for "inadequate" safeguards against contamination, falsification of records and submitting false information to the FDA.[3] Eight months before the FDA inspected Ranbaxy's Paonta Sahib plant and found significant violations, Walmart awarded the company a "Supplier Award" for improving shipping times and performance.[4]
In 2008, the FDA banned importation of drugs manufactured at two of Ranbaxy's plants,[5] and in 2009, the FDA halted review of applications to import drugs manufactured at the Paonta Sahib plant. [6] Soon thereafter, Canada followed suit and banned importation of drugs manufactured at that facility.[7]

Yet Walmart still imports generic drugs made by Ranbaxy at its other Indian facilities.

This is really upsetting as there are just so many people who depend on this program - elderly people and anyone struggling in these tough times. The article lists the drugs manufactured in India and sold by Wal-mart.

It's good to at least have a heads up.

reply to post by ZindoDoone

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All I can say to you is make sure that you are taking care to check on the side effects of the drugs and that you research in the net about them also.

I will not take anything before making sure I am familiar with what to expect.

Remember is your health.

reply to post by ZindoDoone

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Well at least now you know and you can be alert to any reactions to the medications.

You just have to weigh the risks. You and millions of other Americans. The known risk of going bankrupt due to the soaring costs of health-care versus the unknown risk of possibly tainted medicines making you sicker.

To me, this is just another example of how lower manufacturing standards and lower wages overseas are hurting the U.S. It gives our economy a false bottom and sooner or later we're going to go free fall.

There is a saying: You can get it fast, you can get it cheap, you can get it quality or you can have any two out of the three - but you can never have all three at once. If it's fast and cheap, it is bound to be of poor quality. If it high quality and fast, it's bound to cost you. If you want quality and cheap, it's likely going to take a while. No other company exemplifies this rule of thumb like Wal-mart.

[edit on 24/6/2009 by kosmicjack]

reply to post by marg6043

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I have a PDR (Physicians Desk Reference) and ALWAYS research the drugs I am taking! However, I did have to learn the hard way about this effective tool that it seems to many physicians don't use!!

Zindo

reply to post by ZindoDoone

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I am a very strong headed woman and if a drug give me more than three side effects I don't take it anymore, now this have a bad side effects my doctors hate me. because I question anything and complain about everything, specially big pharma pushed drugs like the favorites, you know, stain, high blood pressure and anti depressants.



I take one blood pressure drug because is new and is not generic yet.

I already told the last doctor where he could push the statin and anti depressants drugs into.

A slightly different view:
Wonder who's more slanted?

Union group blasts Wal-Mart for work with India drug firm

BY STEVE PAINTER

Posted on Wednesday, June 24, 2009

URL: www.nwanews.com...

A union-funded group criticized Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Tuesday for continuing to do business with India's largest drug manufacturer after two of the firm's plants failed to meet U.S. Food & Drug Administration standards last year.

Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. is a major global supplier of generic drugs whose customers include other large U.S. retailers such as Walgreens Co., CVS Inc., The Kroger Co. and Rite Aid Corp.

Washington-based WakeUp-WalMart.com took issue with Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, for buying pharmaceuticals from Ranbaxy after the FDA cited the two plants for falsifying records, failure to prevent cross-contamination of drugs and other violations.

"It certainly raises questions about the type of business practices that this manufacturer uses in producing its drugs," said Meghan Scott, group spokesman. WakeUpWalMart is funded by the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which has long sought to represent Wal-Mart workers.

Christi Gallagher, a Wal-Mart spokesman, said the company works closely with its suppliers and the FDA to ensure that manufacturers comply with U.S. standards. Wal-Mart has no reason to believe any tainted products reached its store shelves, she said.

Scott said Wal-Mart is seeking to make itself a player in the national debate over changes in health care, which puts its product-sourcing practices under scrutiny.

"Wal-Mart is certainly not alone," she said.

Gallagher said the critic group was citing dated information that was not specific to Wal-Mart. And like the FDA, she said, the company advised customers to continue taking drugs their doctors prescribed.

The FDA issued warning letters to Ranbaxy Laboratories in September for deficient practices at the plants in Dewas and Paonta Sahib. In February, the FDA announced it had halted review of drug applications from the Paonta Sahib plant, citing falsified data in approved and pending applications.

Wal-Mart's stock closed Tuesday at $48.31 a share, down 24 cents or 0.49 percent, on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock has traded between $46.25 and $63.85 in the past year.

To contact this reporter:

spainter@arkansasonline.com

reply to post by rcwj75

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Could be and I can agree with that to a point, but is evidence that prescribe drugs kills hundreds of thousands in the US every year, see even the big pharma in their run to cut cost and increase revenues also manufacture drugs that can be tainted to sell to the public.

So wait when the Obama health care reform comes to our nation, we may see more deaths per year due to tainted cheap drugs from oversea.

reply to post by Pauligirl

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Well it is common than in 2003 it was laws passed to make sure that imported drugs most pass FDA regulations so is the law after all.

Now is Walmart braking the law while selling drugs that are not FDA approved/

reply to post by marg6043

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I agree too...but NOTHING in the medical field is perfect. People think that doctors are GOD and drugs are cure alls...and obviously thats not true. People need to have more of understanding of the reality of medical issues.

As for the prescriptions coming from other countries....they are no more dangerous then those made right here. And as I said before, when they are made here, your going to pay to pad the pockets of the greedy...thank god for drugs from india, canada, etc..

reply to post by Champagne

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Well this will not make you feel any better,

Statistics prove prescription drugs are 16,400% more deadly than terrorists

Over 750,000 people actually do die in the United States every year, although not from plane crashes. They die from something far more common and rarely perceived by the public as dangerous: modern medicine.

www.naturalnews.com...

American made doesn't means America is safe.

BTW many of the substances used in the manufacturing of drugs in the US are actually from oversea manufactures.

Should Big Pharma be Testing Drugs Overseas?

Two-thirds of the foreign drug manufacturers subject to inspection by the Food and Drug Administration may never have been visited by agency inspectors, a government watchdog told Congress Thursday.

An estimated 80 percent of the active pharmaceutical ingredients used to make drugs sold in the U.S. are imported. Among finished drugs, an estimated 40 percent are made abroad.

www.cbsnews.com...

So any drugs we take here in the US have an 80% parts from oversea manufactures, that means China.

reply to post by marg6043

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Yep....totally aware of this. 1 of my meds I have been on for years - Effexor. I have tried % tried to get off of them but the withdrawal - yes withdrawal - from them is hell! Damn doctors want to keep me on them due to my history. Although, I had severe depression & PTSD symtoms 20 years ago, for the last few years I have felt they were doing me no good and costing a fortune. So, I decided to slowly taper my 300mg/daily 'habit'. I have managed to get down to 150mg every other day. However, when I try to go lower than this I pay for it with withdrawal.

This is one of the main reasons I do not trust the FDA or drugs from this country. Doctors will still tell my Effexor is not addictive! I know from personal experience they are full of #! Actually, I believe they just do not know any better and believe what the drug companys tell them about their drugs......Doctors are slaves to the drug companies - IMHO.

If anyone does not believe what I say about anti-depressants being addictive - just google it1 You would not believe some of the stories....

Originally posted by marg6043
reply to post by Pauligirl

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Well it is common than in 2003 it was laws passed to make sure that imported drugs most pass FDA regulations so is the law after all.

Now is Walmart braking the law while selling drugs that are not FDA approved/

Two different things here. Yes, imported drugs must meet FDA regulations. However, Walmart is not selling drugs that are not FDA approved. The drugs are approved. It's the manufacturing process at two of Ranbaxy's plants that's being questioned. Looks like Walmart is getting theirs from a different Ranbaxy plant.

From the FDA press release cited in the OP:
"To date, the FDA has no evidence that these drugs do not meet their quality specifications and has not identified any health risks associated
with currently marketed Ranbaxy products."

I'm not a Walmart fan. I just want to see all the information out there.

reply to post by Champagne

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I know and I feel for you, last year I had an episode of depression for the first time in my life, due to the side effects of a Beta blocker (blood pressure medicine) and my son buying a motorcycle after I told him over and over not to and a bad case of kidney stones that help raise my blood pressure, I started to have panic attacks that put me in the emergency room with blood pressure 180 over 110, ( panic attacks do not damage the hart).

Well my doctor refuse to link the new blood pressure pill to the depression so he decided to give me a new anti depressant knew to the market, (prestik) I think that is the name.

He said it was not addictive, now even the adverstisment tells that it is or could.

Well My body and my mind kept telling me that something was wrong, that my blood pressure raise was not linked to depression and panic attacks.

So what did I did, I took myself off the blood pressure, never took the anti depressant and after I got over the kidney stone episode I engaged into an exercise, meditation, herbal remedies and relaxation schedule with all my hart.

One year later, I am great, feeling good again, I have not gotten a panic attack in 9 months.

Sometimes depression can be treated by natural medicine, sometimes is not but it doesn't hurt to try.

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