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If you\u2019re taking any kind of prescription medication or if your doctor is pushing you to take medications, a recent FDA recall should really make you think twice.<\/p>\nIf you\u2019re taking any kind of prescription medication or if your doctor is pushing you to take medications, a recent FDA recall should really make you think twice.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t like writing negative, frightening articles. But this issue is too serious to ignore. <\/p>\n
Here\u2019s why. More than five years after the FDA was made aware of this drug being completely useless while at the same time causing serious side effects (even deaths) the drug was still on the market.<\/p>\n
\u2026 and worst of all, it had NEVER BEEN TESTED!<\/p>\n
That\u2019s right. This particular drug had never gone through the FDA\u2019s regular approval process. No study had ever been done to test the effectiveness of this drug. Yet it had the FDA\u2019s stamp of approval based on nothing more than faith.<\/p>\n
What was the drug and how did this happen? That\u2019s the issue of today\u2019s feature article. <\/p>\n
The drug in question was the 300mg generic version of Wellbutrin XL, which is manufactured by Impax Laboratories and marketed by Teva Pharmaceuticals. But the problem isn\u2019t just this particular drug. It\u2019s how the FDA handled the whole approval and recall process. Andy any kind of drug you\u2019re taking can be handled in the same way.<\/p>\n
You see, for a long time the FDA has been favorable towards generic drugs. These are drugs that should include a formula similar to what\u2019s found in the big brand medications that have gone through extensive testing and been previously approved by the FDA.<\/p>\n
Note that the generic versions are not identical, only similar. For the most part, it has to include the same active ingredients but not exactly the same and not necessarily in the same dosages. It\u2019s similar to big brand products compared to store brands. They are mostly the same but still not identical.<\/p>\n
So the patient is in essence used as guinea pig with the generic versions.<\/p>\n
In this case, the 300mg generic version was a takeoff from the 150mg version of the brand name drug. And the FDA just assumed that since the 150mg worked, a 300mg version would work as well or better.<\/p>\n
That was not the case. Immediately in 2006 after the drug was approved, the FDA began receiving complaints about its severe side effects as well as ineffectiveness.
\nThe next step the FDA took was unforgivable. Instead of putting out a warning regarding this drug, recalling it or making their own independent tests, they asked the manufacturer to test the drug.<\/p>\n
The manufacturer started the testing process but soon abandoned it due to \u201cslow patient enrollment.\u201d After all, why should they spend millions on testing a drug that was already approved and they were still selling truckloads of it every month.<\/p>\n
If this were the 1950s, they\u2019d have asked the tobacco companies \u201cPlease test to see if cigarettes might be dangerous.\u201d <\/p>\n
So four years passed, while patients suffered, and nothing happened. Finally in 2010 the FDA was forced to perform their own tests, which quickly revealed what everyone really knew. The drug was not effective and dangerous.<\/p>\n
And yet, it wasn\u2019t until October 2012, two months after the results came out, that the FDA revealed their mistakes to the public.<\/p>\n
Since the FDA has approved hundreds of other drugs using the same faulty methods (assuming that a generic drug works because it\u2019s somewhat similar to the original drug), you would think they were working day and night pulling these drugs off the market, right? <\/p>\n
Wrong! Most of the drugs are still being prescribed. I would love to give you a list of all these drugs but that would take thousands of hours of research.<\/p>\n
Instead the FDA has asked the drug manufacturers to test their own drugs and submit the results by March 2013. This is the exact same thing they did before, which kept this dangerous drug on the market for four more years.<\/p>\n
Approving ineffective drugs may be even worse than having drugs with side effects. It gives people false security. And since the drug doesn\u2019t work, your doctor will add on another drug and another drug until you\u2019re taking 50 different drugs that don\u2019t work and interact with each other in a negative way.<\/p>\n
Again, I apologize for the negative tone of today\u2019s article. I hope you\u2019ll take the time to browse through our archive of hundreds of positive articles on this site (just click the \u201cArticles\u201d or \u201cBrows By Topic\u201d link at the top of this page). Or you may want to check out our natural health guides on the right hand side of this page. <\/p>\n
If your doctor is suggesting you take medications for particular diseases, you\u2019ll want to check out the following:<\/p>\n
Simple exercises that drop blood pressure below 120\/80 as soon as today\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n 3 step approach that reverses type 2 diabetes in 21 days\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n