Dateline Last Night - Anyone Else See It????

[Roselover]

Anyone else watch Dateline last night? I don't usually watch it, but just happeded to turn on the TV and they were talking about counterfeit drugs being smuggled into the US and being sold as real.

What caught my eye and caused me to watch the whole show, was when they showed a bottle of procit!!! A woman with cancer died because the Procit she picked up at her pharmacy was counterfeit!

What really irritated me was that the whole show only built the case to scare us all! No help, no ideas on how to make sure we aren't receiving counterfeit drugs. They said to make sure pills look right, smell right and taste right - but then went on to tell how perfectly made some of these counterfiets are - so that even pharmasicsts can't tell the difference.

I hate shows like this that just scare me and leave me with nothing to do about it! SCARY!

~Roselover

[nadine]

I did see this and it was quite scary for the reason you stated-that pharmicists were unaware! I am still somewhat new here and noticed that many talk about Procrit shots, not sure what the treatment association is with POTS or used for other health problems?? I know the use for cancer pts.

[Sophia3]

I know counterfeit drugs ARE an issue. Still, it makes me mad and I try not to watch those shows anymore.

You just want to stay informed but what is the truth and percentages and what is fact?

Sorry it upset you so much.

[Patricia Gallup]

In order to bring this topic back ON topic, and hopefully not scare any Procrit takers into not believing their product is legit I think I can calm most everyone's fears.

First, this story is a bit old news as far as Procrit is concerned, I'd imagine they didn't speak to much about Procrit and what to do because of this. This story was run at least one year ago, I believe more, and I'm pretty sure it hasn't happened since, and all the "bad" product was identified.

If you don't trust your procrit you can always call Johnson & Johnson, parent company to BRAND NAME Procrit. They know the dosing affected, if I recall it was all above 20,000 unit dosages, mostly 40,000 unit single use boxes. I believe this is higher than any POTS patient would need to take? They know, or at least knew when we spoke to them all of the identification numbers, serial numbers, etc. on the affected product, and the customers were notified if believed to receive counterfeit product. Obviously it was removed from all pharmacies, including CVS which received the most shipments.

Yes, it is quite nervewracking, but if you EVER suspect something is off with your medications you can do 2 things, take it to your pharmacist, where they can run labs, or send away to check validity; and 2, like we did, at advice of our pharmacist before wasting product, call the parent company directly and find the true story.

[corina]

roselover,

i can imagine you got upset because of this show and that it made you mad! try not to worry too much!

corina

[morgan617]

Having worked in the medical field for about thirty years, I believe just about anything.

However, I also believe, anymore "journalists" will do just about anything for a sensational story. If this was indeed over a year ago, why repeat it? Except to frighten and sensationalize and get more viewers. That's almost as sad a commentary as the fact that people do this sort of thing.

I tend not to believe very much of what I see or read anymore, as most of it is slanted to fit the company's, or journalist's own agenda, more than to help the public....

It is souless to frighten already fragile people just make a few bucks. it's right up there with there with making fake meds....morgan

[Roselover]

Actually, the majority of the show was not about Procrit - that's just what caught my eye. Most of the story - as morgan said - was journalist hype trying to catch a counterfeiter. The majority of focus was on Viagra and a few of the common cholesterol and blood pressure meds. Also mentioned was Theraflu (I think) - the one used for the bird flu.

I guess no one else saw the show.....that's probably good - though we ought to be encouraging our governements to be cracking down on this. One idea is to require drug companies to lable each product with a tracking microchip and then all pharmacies can easily scan and affirm that it really came from the company.

I think it was very irresponsible journalism at it's best and I think that's what makes me the maddest (and you all know, I am a gentle spirit who doesn't get mad easily!) So many people rely on their medications and all it did was scare those who are most helpless. Maybe I'll write a lettet to Dateline!

Sorry all, didn't mean to make it sound like those taking Procrit should freek out.... we ALL need to be careful! If these drugs can be imported into any country and sold as the real thing we need to be careful. It's not about a specific drug!

BTW - I'm in the process of getting ready to start Procrit - it's not going to stop me.

~Roselover

[MightyMouse]

Roselover, I saw the show too-- and while it was kind of disturbing that the pharmaceutical company investigators had a hard time identifying the fakes b/c they were so well made, I do remember the portion where they talked about joint law enforcement efforts between the US and Chinese government and that some major arrests had been made.

The meds they showed included some of the common blood pressure management meds, pain meds and also viagra--they had the pills sitting side by side, and visually, it was nearly impossible to tell them appart. However, the fakes had little to no active medication in them.

On the good side for those of us who take medication to have some semblence of a life, some major drug makers have now systems for ensuring their medications safely get to your pharmacy. There are small chips implanted in the bottle at the plant which allows the company to id the product/track the product's travel-- the show mentioned that Target and some other major stores with Rx divisions are able to "read" the id chips in the packaging to ensure you're getting the real deal.

Nina