Comments: South Africa Runs Out Of Psych Meds
Reminds me of the question anyone told they'll need one of these drugs for the rest of their lives should ask - what's it made of and is there enough of whatever it's made of to last me the rest of my life. The follow up question would be, if there's not enough of it, or I can't afford it, will getting hooked on it cause more problems than it solves.
Are we finally going to find out what these "drugs" are made of?
Posted by Sally at March 24, 2008 11:29 PM
China: raw material for the drug, from International Herald Tribune.
LINK
Posted by mark p.s. at March 25, 2008 05:21 AM
The article mentions anti-retrovirals used to treat AIDS... South Africa has driven a hard bargain for years to try and get livable prices for these life-saving drugs, and pissed off every pharma giant on the planet in the process. There seems to be a fight going on now over generics produced in India.
I would not be one bit surprised to find out that the drugs companies are using mysterious and convenient "shortages" to put the screws to the South African government. They may well be using their control of atypical antipsychotics and other psych drugs to take psych patients as hostages in this fight. ("Solian", mentioned in the article, is an atypical sold by Sanofi-Aventis)
Posted by Johanna at March 25, 2008 01:18 PM