Prescription drugs intended to treat allergies and colds is not generally on the list of dangerous medications. The Food and Drug Administration has recalled over five hundred medicines intended to do just that. The FDA cites untested safety and effectiveness in this recall. There’s a trade-off in keeping prescription drugs’ cost low. The security cost of creating medicines in emerging markets could make safety an even bigger concern. Source of article – FDA recalls 500 medicines; low cost can mean unsafe manufacturing by MoneyBlogNewz.

Looking specifically at cold and allergy medicines

The FDA targets more than five hundred prescription cold, allergy and cough medications in its latest recall. The drug’s use a combination of decongestants and cough suppressants in them and come from several suppliers. Several of the medications were very old. The FDA could not even get information from some of the corporations on the medicine. Several of the medications never got Food and Drug Administration approval. They were just sold anyway. Several of the medications were recommended for children and babies. The FDA does not recommend that this kind of medication be used for kids under 2 years old.

Spending money on medicines that do not work

It can cost a lot of money to manufacture prescription medicine. Sometimes different countries are used to create the compound and turn it into pills. The compound is just shipped off. A production plant in one business may get chemical information from another. Emerging markets, such as India and China, have plants that report to cut costs of a drug by 20 percent to 50 percent. Especially for generic medications, this helps cut the cost to consumers by even more. Medicines produced in these emerging markets, however, show a failure rate between 4 percent and 10 percent. For a $287 billion industry in the United States, that translates to billions of dollars worth of drugs that don’t work as advertised.

Prescription drugs paid for

As of Jan. 1 this year, the federal government is starting up programs that help cover even more of senior citizen’s prescription drug cost. It isn’t clear whether or not it is intelligent to spend hundreds of millions on lobbying and the cost of medicine because so much is spent on it. On average, every $1 that is spent on prescription medication saves, in hospital care, about $4, according to a 1999 study. There are surely a lot of problems with prescription medicines. As long as they are working and safe though, it might be a really great investment to make.

Articles cited

National Center for Policy Analysis

ncpa.org/pub/st230

CNN

articles.cnn.com/2009-03-19/health/ep.prescription.drug.costs_1_prescription-drugs-elderly-patients-coumadin?_s=PM:HEALTH

Heartland

heartland.org/healthpolicy-news.org/article/29447/Study_Drugs_from_Emerging_Markets_Have_High_Failure_Rates.html

FDA

fda.gov/Drugs/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/EnforcementActivitiesbyFDA/SelectedEnforcementActionsonUnapprovedDrugs/ucm245106.htm