“We are the largest, the most obese nation in the world, and I think this is a test balloon for China,” said RX Border Defense board president Patsy Writesman at a Breitbart News event, which also featured Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN), Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), former Homeland Security Sec. Chad Wolf, former Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jeff Gerrish, and fellow RX Border Defense board member Raul Lopez.
Writesman and Lopez joined Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle for a discussion on American healthcare security, including the threats posed by continued Chinese healthcare dominance and the risks of an ineffective, or even counterproductive, American response.
China can flood American markets with its products and ingredients without the knowledge of even the most discerning American consumers, Writesman shared.
“I just Googled one ad for obesity drugs, and in a matter of little over an hour, I had 29 targeted ads and rails hit me on drugs, obesity drugs,” she told Boyle. “When I looked at all the detail — it was exactly what China is doing — …. I am an educated consumer, particularly about this, but I could not find the in the detail where the drug was made, what were the ingredients of the drug?”
Her concern is the quality of the drug ingredients getting into the U.S. “It’s really a wide list of companies that are not being detained at the border, [and] over 50% of those companies are Chinese companies. Now, the FDA has high standards for the American population, the American companies, but they don’t have those same standards for what is coming across.”
Writesman cited an example of a Chinese company that, upon inspection, had insects, water issues, and bacteria issues. Yet that company was on the “approved list” for ingredients for compounded GLP-1s, which are customized, non-FDA-approved versions of obesity drugs. “These are compounding issues that are getting through [and] are extremely dangerous to us.”
She hypothesized that adverse effect from these compounding ingredients are underreported, as the online community does not have to report issues as the medical community does. “People are looking at cost and how fast they can get what they want online, but they aren’t looking at the longer-term cost,” she warned. In some cases, the cost is severe, such as a Kentucky woman Writesman cited who, after one month on a compounded weight loss drug, suffered kidney failure.
In addition to the threats to American consumers, Writesman also described the negative impact on the American pharmaceutical industry, which follows FDA rules and regulations, while China ignores those regulations to build its biotech empire. She said that American pharmaceutical companies do the research and development on new and innovative drugs at great cost.
“We are one of the first to markets on new treatments…we are looked at as the leader, or as a leader,” she said. “But if China continues with the financial component, and they are given the authority to continue to affect our health care system like they are, that reduces what we can do as Americans and what we can do as American companies.”
She added, “It is harmful to the Americans from a health perspective. It’s harmful to Americans from a financial perspective, and in the development of drugs that will take care of issues in the future, right?”
In addressing the cost to develop new drugs and the subsequent cost of drugs to the American consumer, Writesman came down squarely against any sort of price controls.
“I do think that’s one area where a mistake is being made, because I think in a way, most favored nation [status] is putting a cap on pricing, and it negatively affects us, and in essence, it kind of is bringing in a socialized structure in pricing for drugs,” she said.
Gerrish, the former U.S. Trade Representative, echoed Writesman, saying most favored nation status and price controls for pharmaceuticals “would play right into China’s hands.”
“What that’s going to do is cut the revenues for our pharmaceutical industry when China is on the rise and seeking to surpass us,” he added.
To address the issues of cost and ingredient quality, Lopez, Writesman’s fellow RX Border Defense board member, said, “To me, it’s pretty simple. You hold China to at least the same standard that we hold with American companies, and I would even go an extra step to a higher standard, like you said, more accountability, more transparency, because their motives are not to help the American people. Their motive is to control and have us dependent on [them] so then whenever they want to do something, they can just pull our strings.”
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