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Trump’s FDA Waging War on Imported Drugs


By Stephen Lendman
stephenlendman.org
11-21-17

 
The Food and Drug Administration operates as arm of corporate interests, not protecting and promoting public health as claimed - most of its budget funded by Big Pharma.

It notoriously approves unsafe GMO foods and ingredients, an earlier agency statement, saying it’s not aware of any information showing that foods derived by these new methods differ from other foods in any meaningful or uniform way” - a monstrous Big Lie.

Industry-run, it approves inadequately tested, potentially dangerous vaccines and other drugs - later discovered to be hazardous to human health, because of harmful, at times lethal, side effects.

In May, Scott Gottlieb became Trump’s FDA commissioner, a physician/resident neocon American Enterprise Institute fellow.

During the GW Bush administration, he served as FDA deputy commissioner for medical and scientific affairs. He was also a member of the White House biodefense interagency working group.

He was a member of Trump’s transition team, rewarded by appointing him FDA commissioner. Earlier, he was involved in agency decisions involving about 20 healthcare companies, his allegiance to them, not public health, safety and welfare.

Politico reported he’s “expected to push the boundaries of FDA reviews…using new authority…to speed up” approvals.

Americans pay twice as much for prescription drugs as consumers in other developed countries. Big Pharma deplores competition.

Cheaper foreign-produced drugs can be bought online with valid prescriptions. At the same time, it’s hard for consumers to know if online pharmacies are legitimate.

It would be simpler importing cheaper drugs from Canada and elsewhere, having them available for purchase at retail pharmacies. Prices would be around one-third to one-half lower than similar or identical ones from Big Pharma.

Yet importing pharmaceutical drugs from other countries is illegal because drug industry bandits oppose competition.

Foreign-produced drugs are much cheaper because of regulated prices and single-payer healthcare systems - governments purchasing all drugs, negotiating with pharma companies for low prices.

In America, they’re unregulated. Drug industry bandits can charge whatever they wish. They take full advantage, price-gouging for maximum profits.

On November 20, Kaiser Health News (KHN) reported on FDA criminal investigators raiding nine central Florida storefronts, entering oppressively with search warrants, targeting legitimate businesses - helping consumers order drugs from Canada and elsewhere overseas at big discounts, not selling them over-the-counter, filling valid prescriptions.

KHN said the FDA “notified the store owners that importing drugs from foreign countries is illegal and that those helping to ‘administer’ such medicines could face fines or jail time.”

The stores operate legally. None were closed so far. Owners are concerned that “the Trump administration has reversed a long-standing non-enforcement policy against the stores. Some of them have been open for nearly 15 years,” KHN explained.

FDA spokeswoman Lyndsay Meyer claimed the agency “is concerned about the safety risks associated with the importation of unapproved prescription drugs from foreign countries.”

“Drug products that come from unknown or foreign sources may be unregulated or subject to less oversight than US requirements. These unknowns put patients’ health at risk.”

Fact: The FDA is worried about much cheaper foreign drugs competing with Big Pharma’s monopoly, not patients’ health and safety.

Florida has around 20 pharmacy storefronts, mainly serving seniors, preferring to buy drugs from Canada and elsewhere abroad this way, rather than online.

None of these businesses dispense drugs, operating legally. Yet raiding their premises is an ominous sign.

Candidate Trump promised lower drug prices for Americans, reneging once taking office, proving he’s like all other dirty politicians, notably Western ones - saying one thing, doing another, serving privileged interests exclusively.

VISIT MY NEW WEB SITE: stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman). Contact at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
 
My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html