Counterfeit Prescription Drugs Pose Danger to all Americans
Dan Rather, Sharyl Attkisson

06/08/2000
CBS News: Evening News with Dan Rather

Counterfeit medicine looks like the real thing, but is made with cheaper, sometimes dangerous ingredients, and there`s no way for doctors or patients to tell the difference. The problem has gotten little publicity, and even less attention from the FDA according to critics.

RATHER: There`s news tonight about a potential health danger of another sort: counterfeit prescription drugs. These fakes often look like the genuine drugs, but they can cause severe side effects -- even death.

So what, if anything, is your FDA doing about this?

CBS` Sharyl Attkisson has been digging up the real facts on fake drugs.

SHARLY ATTKISSON, CBS NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After Lynn Brown`s doctor gave her a common antibiotic, gentamicin, for a toenail infection, she was stricken by an imbalance disorder so profound, she literally had to retrain herself to walk.

LYNN BROWN: This is permanent damage. It is irreversible.

ATTKISSON: Experts believe counterfeit gentamicin may be to blame for hundreds of severe reactions and at least 66 deaths in the U.S.

(on camera): Counterfeit medicine looks like the real thing, but is made with cheaper, sometimes dangerous ingredients, and there`s no way for doctors or patients to tell the difference. The problem has gotten little publicity, and even less attention from the FDA according to critics.

(voice-over): In 1996, Flavine International admitted it imported nine counterfeit drugs into the U.S. for years undetected, including gentamycin, and the drugs were associated with deaths, an FDA memo noted after the fact. But three years passed before the FDA finally stopped the gentamicin shipments, and only after hospitals in California and Colorado noticed unusual reactions in patients.

Today, Congress accused the FDA of disregarding its own evidence of a growing public health risk, even after one FDA investigator warned, "We literally have no control over both drugs that enter the U.S. These drugs can reach anyone including the president."

REP. RICHARD BURR, COMMERCE COMMITTEE: The FDA in their own memorandums knew in 1996, may 15, that they had a problem. They had a problem and they had deaths.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ATTKISSON: It`s hard to believe, but even after the gentamicin episode, the FDA allowed Flavine International to bring other medicine into the U.S. made by the same counterfeit drugmaker in China. FDA officials have now vowed to put a stop to that and devote more attention to the problem -- Dan.

RATHER: Sharyl Attkisson.

Ahead on CBS, a big source of fresh fish is almost fresh out. We`ll take you there and show you why.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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