938 FDA to Begin Monitoring Generic Drug Quality
The People's Pharmacy
Joe and Terry Graedon
4.6 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 8 March 2014
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Tune in to our radio show on your local public radio station, or sign up for the podcast and listen at your leisure. Here’s what it’s about:
A number of foreign drug firms have been cited by the FDA for poor quality control (and in some cases data manipulation). Perhaps in response, the agency has decided to establish a new Office under its jurisdiction. The Office of Pharmaceutical Quality will actually test the drugs Americans take to see if they meet appropriate standards. While the program applies to brand name drugs as well, it is concerns about generic drug quality that are driving this welcome initiative. What steps will the FDA take to ensure drug quality?
A recent article indicates that stethoscopes are just as likely as hands to be contaminated after a doctor examines a patient. But while everyone pays attention to hand hygiene, hardly any institutions require stethoscope disinfection between patients. Isn’t it time to start?
Some parents are trying to fight child obesity by starting their toddlers on skim milk at an early age. Dr. Alan Greene tells us why that might not be ideal.
We also discuss home remedies that help for common health conditions.
Call in your questions and comments at 888-472-3366 or email radio@peoplespharmacy.com between 7 and 8 am EDT.
Guests: Janet Woodcock, MD, is Chief Medical Officer and head of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at FDA, Rockville, MD.
Alan Greene, MD, FAAP, is founder of www.drgreene.com, cited by the AMA as “the pioneer physician Web site.” He was founding president of the Society for Participatory Medicine, a practicing pediatrician and founder of the WhiteOut Now movement to change how babies are fed from their very first bite of solid food. His books include Feeding Baby Green and Raising Baby Green.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to this podcast of the people's pharmacy. It's brought to you by ear ease. |
| 0:06.6 | Every year, millions of people suffer from ear pain, especially air travelers and young children. |
| 0:11.8 | The ear ease, invented by a medical doctor in 1988, has helped tens of thousands of people reduce or eliminate ear pain. |
| 0:20.4 | Go to ear ease.com for more information. |
| 0:23.3 | That's www.ear-e-A-A-S-E-A-S-E dot com. |
| 0:29.9 | Generic drugs now make up more than 80% of prescriptions dispensed in the U.S. |
| 0:35.7 | How reliable are they? |
| 0:37.8 | This is the People's Pharmacy with Terry and Joe Graydon. |
| 0:49.1 | Recent scandals involving Indian drug manufacturers have raised concerns about generic drug quality. |
| 0:55.0 | The FDA has announced it will spend $20 million to test drug quality. |
| 1:00.0 | Will that solve the problem? |
| 1:02.0 | Stethoscopes are the most common tool physicians and nurses use to examine patients. |
| 1:07.0 | Do these iconic devices spread germs from patient to patient? |
| 1:12.7 | Coming up on the People's Pharmacy, |
| 1:17.9 | pediatrician Alan Green tells us why skim milk might not be the best choice for toddlers. We'll take your calls and discuss the health stories that matter to you. |
| 1:24.2 | First, this news. |
| 1:29.0 | In the People's Pharm health headlines, a study from Sweden suggests that men with early prostate cancer may benefit from radical prostatectomy instead of active surveillance. |
| 1:40.3 | Roughly 700 men were randomized to undergo surgery or watchful waiting. They were followed up for 23 years. |
| 1:48.4 | 63 of the men who received surgery died from prostate cancer compared to 99 of those in the active surveillance group. |
| 1:55.7 | After 18 years, 18% of the men who had undergone radical prostatectomy had died from prostate cancer, compared |
| 2:03.2 | to 29% of those in the watchful waiting group. |
| 2:06.7 | That is an absolute risk reduction of 11 percentage points. |
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