Today’s Topic Is About Drugs Safety
Watch today’s recommended TED at: https://www.ted.com/talks/katherine_eban_a_dose_of_reality_about_generic_drugs?language=zh-cn#t-942332
Standards on drugs play an important role in guaranteeing public’s healths by setting requirements on drugs. In this way, experimental and clinical tests can distinguish effective and safe drugs from harmful drugs, which may even bring severe side effects to patients. And FDA, as well as “generic drugs”, is aimed at setting such basic rules for drugs. It is clear that drugs safety depends on the effectiveness of these rules and process of executing. However, the system for testing drugs and whether the drugs meet the requirements of FDA, are based on manufacturer’s own conscience. To be specific, the administrator won’t see the results of experiments or tests themselves but rather see reports on those experiments. The lack of overseeing the experiments and checking the validity of data is making room for fake data. If the drugs can pass the test, then everything is okay. But if the drugs fail the test, the manufacturer may fake their data instead of purifying their drugs to pass the test, and make their fortune by selling potentially ineffective drugs to the world.
This news also reminds me of a movie about an Indian drug manufacturer who forged HIV drugs and sold these drugs to Indians or Chinese. However, in that movie, the forged drugs were as effective as real ones. Because the real drugs were protected by intelligence laws and were sold at high prices, most people could only buy forged drugs in black markets. At last, the manufacturer was arrested for violating the intelligence law, but the government decided to lend a helping hand to people by offering subsidies.
To ensure the safety and effectiveness of drugs, there are mainly two approaches. The first one is to make sure administrators can actually see the process of making drugs and results of the tests on drugs. The second one is to let patients know more information about drugs they use. Some basic facts like how the drugs are produced, where they are produced and results of tests should be shown to buyers and patients.
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