Health experts say a growing shortage of a number of drugs in the US will start to affect patients in Australia.
Late last year the Food and Drug Administration in the US released a concerning report into drug shortages, showing nearly 200 medicines were in short supply - three times more than in 2006.
The shortage is mainly in cancer, anaesthetic and anti-infective drugs like penicillin.
This rise has already started delaying, even denying treatments for US patients with critical medical conditions.
Doctors and patient groups in Australia are now warning patients about how these shortages might affect them.
Ovarian Cancer Australia chief executive Annabelle Davis says her group has told hundreds of its members, who rely on a drug called Doxil, to start preparing.
“Doxil, which is more commonly known in Australia as Caelyx, is used to treat women with advanced ovarian cancer,” she said.
“Many of these women are prescribed the drug because they’re resistant to other more common treatments; one of the last options for them.
“So the fact that it’s not available at this time will be certainly of some concern and anguish to them.”
The pharmaceutical industry is increasingly globalised, which is why these shortages will affect Australians.
The industry says it needs financial incentives to keep up with growing demand in drugs.
Australian Medical Association president Dr Steve Hambleton says shortages happen mostly when a manufacturer malfunctions.
“Things like fire in manufacturing plants, the Japanese earthquake caused some problems, even the Icelandic volcano caused transportation issues and it can go right back to errors in labelling or other things,” he said.
“The problem is that when you’re manufacturing for the market, if the drug has been around for a long time there may be only one or two manufacturers and if there’s a problem in both plants at the same time, then you have a potential issue.”
Global industry
There are 2,500 medicines on the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) list and the drug industry says so far they have managed the shortages well.
Medicines Australia chief executive Dr Brendan Shaw concedes it would be better to boost the capacity of local suppliers, however in the current market he says this may not be possible.
“The medicines industry these days is a global industry and it’s because we have a global industry that we have access to so many different medicines,” he said.
“There are some issues that we need to address long-term about proper reimbursement or the incentives for supplying medicines to market and indeed manufacturing them in Australia.
“And I think it’s important also that governments, when setting prices for medicines, also need to take into account making sure the viability of supplying that medicine and making sure that medicines can be supplied in Australia and indeed manufactured in Australia.”
Dr Shaw says this might come at a cost; the price of drugs will have to be much higher.
“It is important that when pricing medicines on the market that industry viability is considered; that is you’ve got to make sure there’s enough incentive there for companies to supply the market,” he said.
“It’s one thing in the short-term to try and cut costs by driving prices down, but it’s also important to remember to have incentives for companies to supply that medicine.
“If the incentives are too low then it’ll be commercially difficult for those companies to supply those medicines.”
For its part, the TGA has released a statement saying it works closely with the industry to ensure continuity of supply and to identify alternative sources of medicine.
(Source: abc.net.au)
Filed under big pharma drug shortage
Anti-narcotics agents working for the US government have laundered or smuggled millions of dollars in drug proceeds to see how the system works and use the information against Mexican drug cartels, The New York Times reported Sunday.
Citing unnamed current and former federal law enforcement officials, the newspaper said the agents, primarily with the Drug Enforcement Administration, have handled shipments of hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal cash across borders.
Some 45,000 people have been killed in Mexico since 2006, when its government launched a major military crackdown against the powerful drug cartels that have terrorized border communities as they battled over lucrative smuggling routes.
According to these officials, the operations were aimed at identifying how criminal organizations move their money, where they keep their assets and, most important, who their leaders are, the report said.
The agents had deposited the proceeds in accounts designated by traffickers, or in shell accounts set up by agents, the paper noted.
While the DEA conducted such operations in other countries, it began doing so in Mexico only in the past few years, The Times said.
As it launders drug money, the agency often allows cartels to continue their operations over months or even years before making seizures or arrests, the report said.
According to The Times, agency officials declined to publicly discuss details of their work, citing concerns about compromising their investigations.
But Michael Vigil, a former senior official who is currently working for a private contracting company called Mission Essential Personnel, is quoted by the paper as saying: “We tried to make sure there was always close supervision of these operations so that we were accomplishing our objectives, and agents weren’t laundering money for the sake of laundering money.”
(Source: Yahoo!)
Filed under dea cia drug money laundering
Firefighters try to extinguish a fire after a light aircraft crashed in Mexico City. Mexican Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mourino (inset) died in the crash.
Photos: AFP
Mexican interior minister Francisco Blake has been killed in a helicopter crash, a blow to the government as it fights powerful drug cartels.
Television images showed the scattered wreckage of the helicopter on a hillside south of the capital on Friday, and the government confirmed that Mr Blake and the seven others on board were killed. It did not say what caused the crash.
President Felipe Calderon says the helicopter was flying in cloudy conditions at the time.
Mr Calderon has cancelled his trip to Honolulu for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum after hearing news of the crash.
Mexico is locked in a brutal conflict against drug cartels that has killed 45,000 people in the last five years and Mr Blake was a key member of Mr Calderon’s security team.
Mr Blake is the second interior minister in Mr Calderon’s presidency to be killed in an aircraft crash. The previous one three years was declared an accident.
As interior minister, Mr Blake was responsible for helping Mr Calderon implement his strategy against drug gangs, as well as negotiating with opposition parties in Congress. Lawmakers held a minute’s silence as a mark of respect.
Mr Calderon’s presidency has been dominated by his decision to send in the army against drug gangs shortly after he took office in December 2006.
The soaring death toll has battered support for the ruling National Action Party, or PAN, ahead of a presidential election next July, and this year dragged down Mr Calderon’s approval ratings to their lowest levels of his term.
Born in Tijuana on Mexico’s border with the United States, Mr Blake trained as a lawyer and served as a deputy for his home state of Baja California before joining the government.
“There is great sadness, firstly for the loss of a great friend, but also because this is a very severe blow in the midst of a war against criminals inside Mexico,” said Socrates Bastida, a leader of the PAN in Baja California.
On November 4, 2008, then interior minister Juan Camilo Mourino and several other people died when their small plane crashed next to a major Mexico City boulevard during rush hour.
Investigators concluded that Mr Mourino’s plane had been flying too close to a much bigger jet plane ahead of it on the flight path to land at Mexico City airport, possibly causing a fatal wave of turbulence.
Mr Blake took office in July 2010, the fourth man to serve as interior minister under Mr Calderon.
Reuters
(Source: abc.net.au)
Filed under drug cartel black market
A Mexican drug suspect awaiting trial in Chicago is making a startling claim. He insists he can’t be prosecuted because he worked as an informant and had a secret immunity deal with the U.S. government.
Prosecutors say Vicente Zambada-Niebla oversaw drug running on a massive scale into the U.S. But now, from behind bars at a maximum security prison in Chicago, he’s making his own explosive accusations — that U.S. government agents have been aiding Mexico’s infamous Sinaloa cartel — even tipping off leaders on how to avoid capture.
CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports that Zambada’s court filings claim federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents gave him, cartel kingpin Chapo Guzman, and other Sinaloa leaders “carte blanche” to “operate their drug business without interference,” as long as they snitched on other cartels. For years, Zambada’s attorney argues, Sinaloa leaders helped “authorities capture or kill thousands of rivals.” Their chief rivals are the Zetas, considered the most vicious and ruthless of all.
Phil Jordan used to head the DEA’s Center for Drug Trafficking Intelligence, called “EPIC,” in El Paso. He says he doesn’t buy Zambada’s claim that the DEA promised immunity.
Jordan told CBS News, “We do not have the power to offer immunity.”
But in court documents, prosecutors do admit the U.S. had a signed cooperation agreement with a different Sinaloa cartel leader.
That agreement was with Sinaloa cartel lawyer Humberto Loya-Castro. Starting as early as 2004, Loya passed information to the DEA from cartel leaders including Zambada — the one now on trial. In return, Zambada claims, the U.S. dismissed a major case against Loya and agreed to “not … interfere with” the cartel’s “drug trafficking” or actively prosecute their leadership.
Jordan says any agreement with a cartel leader is controversial, but may be deemed necessary.
He said, “It’s probably a matter of trying to get inside or closer intelligence to the whole Mexican federation, as we call it.”
Jordan points out that Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega was once on the CIA’s payroll. And that in Colombia, the U.S. worked with select cartels, allowing them to continue drug smuggling operations in the U.S. as long as they helped in destroying the more dangerous Cali and Medillin cartels.
As to whether the government has similar plans in Mexico, they’re not saying, but this case, Attkisson reported, raises the question.
Prosecutors say even if federal agents did promise Zambada immunity — which they deny — it’s unenforceable.
(Source: cbsnews.com)
Filed under CIA DRUG RUNNING MEXICO CARTEL
