Pills, profits and peril: How India’s export-driven pharma machine puts Americans at severe risk

By Amanda Bartolotta

It’s every parent’s nightmare: Racing their child to the emergency room, only to learn that the cough syrup they gave their son or daughter, rather than relieving their cough, instead had poisoned their child. It’s the kind of horror story no one expects, especially from something made for children. Yet it accurately reflects a grim reality of today’s global pharmaceutical trade.

In this case, a drug manufacturer in India decided to swap safe ingredients for cheaper, toxic chemicals, the same substances used in engine coolant, brake fluid and antifreeze. As horrifying as that story sounds, there’s an even more unsettling truth: The same country responsible for those deadly syrups also produces a huge share of the medicines sitting in American homes and hospitals.

India now dominates the global generic drug market, supplying the majority of the low-cost prescriptions Americans take every day.

Behind that dominance lies a disturbing pattern of fraud, contamination and neglect. Factories caught falsifying test results, skipping safety checks or cutting corners with unsafe inputs have continued shipping products abroad with little interruption – and even less accountability.

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