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“As the largest and most overweight nation globally, I believe China is using us as a testing ground,” stated Patsy Writesman, board president of RX Border Defense, during a Breitbart News event. The gathering also included prominent figures such as Senator Jim Banks (R-IN), Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR), former Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, ex-Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jeff Gerrish, and fellow board member Raul Lopez.
Writesman and Lopez participated in a conversation with Matthew Boyle, Washington Bureau Chief for Breitbart News, focusing on the security of American healthcare. They examined the potential threats from China’s healthcare dominance and the dangers of an inadequate American response.
Writesman expressed concern that China can saturate U.S. markets with its products and ingredients without American consumers being aware, regardless of how informed they might be.
“I searched for obesity drugs online, and within just over an hour, I received 29 targeted ads for these drugs,” she recounted to Boyle. “When I delved into the details, it was evident that this is part of what China is doing—I’m well-informed about these matters, yet I couldn’t find information on where the drug was manufactured or its ingredients.”
Her primary worry is about the quality of drug components entering the U.S. “A substantial number of these companies, over 50%, are Chinese and are not being stopped at the border. While the FDA maintains high standards for American companies, these standards don’t apply equally to imported products,” she remarked.
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.”