One Dead Canadian, One Raging Debate
By trying to soothe her nerves with a few easily bought pills, Marcia Bergeron became the poster child for the reimportation debate. The 58-year-old Vancouver resident died in December and last week the coroner made official what drugmakers and pharmacists have been saying for months - she was killed by a combination of fake meds she ordered over the Internet.
Three types of pills were found at her home. One contained Zolpidem, a powerful hypnotic not available in Canada. Another contained the anti-anxiety med Alprazolam, which is available with a prescription, and the third contained acetaminophen. The drugs were laced with extremely high quantities of metal, and an autopsy showed she died of cardiac arrhythmia stemming from metal toxicity.
“What we have is the first person (for whom) we have all the facts, who we know died as a result of these drugs,” coroner Rose Stanton tells The Globe and Mail. “But what we also know is lots of people are buying these drugs. So the potential for more deaths is high.”
Indeed, Bergeron was cited as a tragic warning by the head of Pfizer’s global security in testimony given Congress last May - two months before the coroner weighed in. The website Bergeron visited claimed to be Canadian but reportedly went offline and was previously cited by the FDA for selling counterfeit Zolpidem which, by the way, is available by prescription in the US, but not in Canada.
In any event, Bergeron’s death is a poignant reminder that counterfeit meds do exist and can be harmful. But if the cost of some meds remains out of reach for enough people, counterfeiting will likely continue. And black markets can be difficult to eradicate. Which raises a question - is it time to discuss legalizing importation?
Should importation be legalized?
- No (56%, 31 Votes)
- Yes (44%, 24 Votes)
Total Voters: 55
Loading …Hat tip to Question Authority
Tom
So kids lives are more important than adult lives? 1 dead canadian doesn’t matter to us? Does anyone really think this is the only death from counterfeit meds? By the way, hasn’t the reimportation debate died. When med part D came along, the elderly quit complaining about cost of meds when they didn’t have to pay for them. Funny how when it isn’t your money you don’t care, but that seems to be the case.
I think this deserves a look by M Moore. Didn’t he tell us how great Canadian medicine was? And one of their own had to go to the internet to get fake meds?????????? Don’t tell me someone from Cuba has had to do the same thing?!?! I want a documentary NOW!
Sal Giorgianni, PharmD
Importation is very dangerous. Pharmaceutical products are not simple commodities, they are complex technology in a deceptively simple form. If the importation route were a simple or direct one from a well regulated pharmacy source to consumer that may be one thing but now it is just the Wild West. It is unfortunate and amazing to me that the American public would consider consuming a product that is designed to change or augment the biologic function of the human body (e.g. a drug) from places that they would not even try to drink the water. What a crazy phenomenon.
Many pharmacist experts, including myself, agree that at no time since the very early 1900’s has the integrity of the of the pharmaceutical supply chain been so porus.
Biotech Blog » Drug reimportation: Where are the dead Canadians?
[...] where are the dead Canadians? Here’s one: Marcia Bergeron succumbed to a combination of fake drugs acquired over the [...]