118: Dirty Medicine and How Generic Drugs Are Poisoning Us | Katherine Eban

The Generic Drugs You're Taking May Not Be As Safe Or Effective As You ThinkAs the cost of prescription medication soars, consumers are increasingly taking generic drugs: low-cost alternatives to brand-name medicines. Often health insurance plans require patients to switch to generics as a way of controlling costs. But journalist Katherine Eban warns that some of these medications might not be as safe, or effective, as we think.Eban has covered the pharmaceutical industry for more than 10 years. She notes that most of the generic medicines being sold in the U.S. are manufactured overseas, mostly in India and China. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration states that it holds foreign plants to the same standards as U.S. drugmakers, but Eban's new book, Bottle of Lies, challenges that notion. She writes that the FDA often announces its overseas inspections weeks in advance, which allows plants where generic drugs are made the chance to fabricate data and results.In this episode we discuss: 1. FDA approval process of drugs 2. The lies behind the pharmaceutical industry 3. What are generic drugs and what are brand label drugs?4. Where are our generic drugs made?5.The story of Ranbaxy: An Indian drug company whose business model was fraud and deceit6.How the FDA approves drugs, the impact of “first to file”, and Peter’s tangent on moral corruption7.A booming generic drug market and the FDA struggling to keep upDinesh’s internal investigation finds widespread fraud and falsified data inside Ranbaxy8.How concerned should you be when buying a generic drug from your local pharmacy? 9. How to investigate your own drugs for quality to ensure you are getting what you need 10. An innovative pharmacy that tests all its drugs for quality 11. Reforming the FDA and generic drug industry: Why we need reform and ideas on how to do it12. The importance of taking individual ownership and not waiting for Congress to bail us outFind Katherine and her book here:https://www.katherineeban.com/Katherine on Twitter: @KatherineEban