Recent events in the pharmaceutical industry have placed
scrutiny on pharmacies. A few days ago, a breakout of meningitis from
contaminated steroid shots has killed five patients and sickened thirty-five. This
happened because of pharmacies compounding drugs thus giving a single drug more
applications. Because of the illness coming from the practice of compounding,
the New England Compounding Center has lost its license to compound, and left
the pharmacies that distributed the steroid injections in hot water. Another
recent event that has given the public a wary eye to pharmaceuticals and
distribution of drugs is Canada Drugs, an Internet based drug distributor who
had been accused of distributing counterfeited drugs last year. The accusation has prompted the US government
to take action and shut down the website, but Canada Drugs has just recently
switched Internet vendors, making it more difficult for US and Canada officials
to legally shut them down. With news of counterfeit drugs and scandals, it is
prevalent to the public that the government needs to regulate the pharmaceutical
industry more. But it is hard to say whether that is good for the industry. At
the moment though, the pharmaceutical industry does not have a favorable light
on them.
Weaver , C. (2012, October 05). Web pharmacy switches to new internet vendor. Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443768804578038862567455642.html?mod=WSJ_Pharmaceuticals_leftHeadlines
Martin, T. W. (2012, October 07). Meningitis cases rise amid hunt for victims. Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444070104578042860922074782.html?mod=WSJ_Pharmaceuticals_leftHeadlines
Do you think the pharmaceutical industry will recover from these major incidents? Or do you think these incidents will had an impact? I believe the pharmaceutical industry will always be successful because even though there are scandals people will always have a need for drugs provided by the industry.
ReplyDeleteI think it is particularly shocking that the government is having a hard time shutting down Canada Drugs. I agree with the statement that the government should be regulating pharmaceutical companies more and have more power over them than they do now. Although it may be harmful to shut down many companies, counterfeiting drugs is not legal and it is sometimes harmful to the consumers. People are always going to need drugs. Sometimes they cannot choose avoid using medicine if their health situation needs it. If the government is able to crack down on these pharmaceutical companies more, it will actually be beneficial more than harmful. Sales and revenue will probably not go down a lot because like I said earlier, people always need drugs. The demand for them is not going to change very much.
ReplyDeleteThat's really interesting how compounding can lead to such dangerous consequences. Have there been any more cases of this? I wonder what will happen to the pharmacies that were involved in this. As for the other current issue, the government should be able to better handle situations such as this. It seems like it wasn't much trouble for the company to evade the government. But even if the government resolves this, I'm sure this same problem will rise again with another company.
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