FDA allowing Americans to take banned generic drugs!

It’s like a loaded gun sitting in your medicine cabinet — leased to you for $5 or $10 a month.

Every day millions of Americans are taking cheap generic drugs to treat everything from depression to cancer.

But a shocking investigation from the European Union has revealed that as many as 700 of these drugs may have been approved based on little more than fraud by a top Indian research firm.

Nobody knows if the drugs work — or even if they could kill you — and dozens of countries are working overtime to pull these meds off the market. But the FDA is in full-blown panic mode — and while it sits on its hands, you or someone you love could be at risk.

Out of controlIf you take a prescription drug, there’s a good chance it’s a generic. In fact, 80 percent of prescriptions written in the U.S. each year are filled with generic meds.We’ve been told all along that the active ingredients are exactly the same. But lots of times, whatever else manufacturers are putting in the drugs — and even if they work — is anybody’s guess.

And that goes double for generics that are made overseas.

Over the years, generic drug makers in countries like India have been caught red-handed forging quality control data and even shipping medicines they knew were contaminated!

But it looks like the shadiness isn’t just limited to the Indian drug suppliers. Earlier this year, the European Medicines Agency began looking into GVK Biosciences — an Indian company that’s often hired to conduct clinical trials on generics — and found the company may have engaged in widespread fraud to get the meds approved.

GVK has been accused of manipulating trial data, including information on how certain drugs may affect your heart. It looks like this company was totally out of control!

The research is so sketchy that EMA has now recommended banning 700 different generics — including many sold right here in America –and countries across Europe are starting to take action.

You can get a full list of the questionable drugs here (warning: it’s a large PDF and may take some time to load), but some of the best-known meds are:

the antihistamine fexofenadine (brand name Allegra);
levetiracetam, a seizure drug (brand name Keppra);
nebivolo, for high blood pressure (brand name Bystolic); and
the antidepressant venlafaxine (brand name Effexor).

And, remember, taking a faulty generic can be downright deadly. A few years back, French researchers found that 21 of 30 samples of a generic form of the chemo drug Taxotere weren’t up to specifications. And studies on imatinib mesylate, a leukemia drug, found that the generic version increases your chances of dying.

But now, with potentially hundreds of dangerous drugs on the market, our government is doing what it does best — absolutely nothing.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, an FDA spokesperson said the agency had looked at the studies in question and was more or less OK with them. It isn’t planning to do a darned thing.

Really? It kind of makes you wonder what drugs these folks have been taking.

But it doesn’t look to me like the FDA is conducting some rigorous scientific investigation — it looks like the agency is panicking!

Mainstream medicine is so dependent on prescription drugs that our government is terrified of pulling 700 of them off the market — even if we’re not sure they’re safe or if they work.

Well, just because the FDA is afraid to act doesn’t mean you should be.

If you’re currently taking a generic drug (especially if it’s on the list I showed you), talk to your doc about whether it’s possible to quit it or switch to a safer alternative. Because it’s going to take a long time to sort this mess out — and you shouldn’t be left twisting in the wind.

Sources:

“Generic drugs banned in Europe but not in the US” People’s Pharmacy, August 24, 2015, peoplespharmacy.com