In The News

Rick Weiss May 24, 2007
US inspection records are showing that imports from China are unfit for human consumption.The US Food and Drug Administration has detained more than one thousand shipments at ports containing tainted Chinese dietary supplements, toxic cosmetics and counterfeit medicines. Consumer activists and politicians, upset about contaminated food products, are demanding action. With the numerous pet deaths...
Katia Cortes May 17, 2007
Brazil’s president signed an order to override the patent of Merck and Company’s signature AIDS drug, thereby opening the field to lower-cost producers to sell generic versions of the drug. Citing a 2001 World Trade Organization ruling permitting countries to overrule drug patents in cases of national health emergencies, Brazil rejected Merck’s offer to reduce the price of Efavirenz, part of an...
Gautam Naik May 10, 2007
Increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, a result of global warming, is boosting pollen rates and exacerbating allergy and asthma symptoms. A study from a US Department of Agriculture researcher has demonstrated that ragweed plants grown in urban settings, typically warmer and containing more exhaust fumes, have five times the pollen of rural plants, reports Gautam Naik for “The Wall Street...
Walt Bogdanich May 8, 2007
In 1937, more than 100 people in the US died, after taking medicine that contained diethylene glycol, a solvent used in some anti-freeze products that looks and tastes like glycerin syrup, a common base for cough syrup and other medical products. The tragedy led to tough regulations and the start of the modern Food and Drug Administration. Decades later, counterfeiters in China tried the same...
David Barboza May 4, 2007
Since it joined the WTO in 2001, China has come under increasing pressure to crack down on manufacturing of counterfeit and illegal goods within its borders. Beyond intellectual property concerns, safety fears are becoming increasingly prominent amid criticism of China’s lax enforcement against counterfeiters. Tales of fake medicines on US shelves and faithful replications of name-brand cars on...
Nicholas Zamiska April 13, 2007
Food inspectors have traced to China a contaminated ingredient in pet food that has killed an unknown number of animals. Wheat gluten is a common ingredient in pet food, cereal and pasta. The discovery of batches tainted with a pesticide illegal in the US raises questions about China's growing role in the international agricultural market. In 2006, 12 percent of world fruit and vegetable...
Celia W. Dugger April 10, 2007
Intervention, even with the best intentions, can cause unforeseen tragic consequences. Thousands of people starve in Zambia, caught in a web of international health groups that supply drugs for AIDS, improving health yet increasing the pangs of hunger; weather patterns that deliver drought; local politicians who don’t want to release large food supplies; and wealthy nations in the West that...