Trade in counterfeit drugs is deadly
JOE SCHWARCZThe Gazette
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Hundreds of lives could have been saved if only someone at a government lab in Panama had bothered to inject a few microlitres of the sugar-free cough syrup into a gas chromatograph.
The instrument would have readily revealed that the substance destined to be used as a solvent in a government produced cough medication was not the desired and safe glycerin, but highly toxic diethylene glycol. Immense misery and grief would have been avoided had this simple procedure been carried out.
Glycerin is a sweet-tasting liquid that serves as an excellent solvent for the ingredients used in a number of cough, cold and fever remedies and has a well-established record of safety. Actually, it is a normal product of fat metabolism, so our bodies certainly know how to handle it. Diethylene glycol, on the other hand, is a different story. This industrial chemical derived from petroleum is used in the manufacture of products ranging from coolants and plastics to inks and glues. There is no problem here, but should diethylene glycol be ingested, it can quickly destroy the kidneys and kill. Obviously, nobody would knowingly ingest such a toxic substance. But unfortunately, unknowingly, it has repeatedly happened. Diethylene glycol has solvent and sweetening properties similar to glycerin, but it costs about one-third as much to produce.
The trail leads to China, a country with huge chemical production capabilities and lax regulations. It seems that making diethylene glycol from ethylene and passing it off as glycerin doesn’t present much of a problem for some chemical producers. And there appears to be no scarcity of European distributors who are content not to ask too many questions if the price is right. Certificates of analysis are forged, shipping documents are altered to hide the product’s Chinese origin, complacent drug manufacturers are taken in, and bodies start piling up in the morgue. Trying to track down the companies that sell diethylene glycol as glycerin is like trying to capture water in a sieve. Chinese officials have not been as co-operative as the situation demands, unwilling to admit that companies, including some state-sponsored ones, have been complicit in the death of people around the world.
Source: http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/columnists/story.html?id=6c2cb11d-fb8d-4771-a29f-bb743e3d23d5