Sometimes, out of nowhere, your new prescription drugs can be ineffective or, worse still, cause unpleasant side effects. In some cases, the reason is that the manufacturer messed up. Pro Publica has launched Rx Inspector, which allows you to search a generic drug to where it was manufactured and learn the factory’s inspection history.
Until the launch of Rx Inspector, it was near impossible to figure out where a generic drug was manufactured and the factory’s safety record. Now, you can do it quickly, easily and at no cost.
Rx Inspector can help researchers ensure that the United States has a safe drug supply. Moreover, if a factory has a poor safety record, health care providers can check Rx Inspector and avoid writing prescriptions for generic drugs manufactured in that factory. As important, Rx Inspector allows patients to check the source of the generics they are taking, especially if they are feeling strange side effects.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is charged with inspecting factories manufacturing drugs in the US as well as abroad. Even though 90 percent of the drugs Americans use are generics and many are manufactured abroad, the FDA has never made it easy for Americans to know which factories have safety and quality violations and where they are located. Pro Publica had to sue the FDA to get its records and disclose them.
Through Rx Inspector, you can see the source of almost 40,000 generic drugs and the safety reports of the factories that made them. Pro Publica has been investigating the FDA for several months now because it has done little to ensure that generic drug manufacturers with sustained drug contamination and quality failures are held to account, let alone that patients are warned about contaminated or otherwise faulty generic drugs.
One group of researchers is using Rx Inspector to give generic drugs quality scores. Governments and other drug purchasers can then avoid buying these drugs.
All this said, some experts warn that the same manufacturer can produce drugs that are safe and drugs that are unsafe. Moreover, different people can experience different side effects from the same drug for reasons having nothing to do with where the drug was manufactured. So, if you’re feeling strange side effects from a drug you’re taking, be sure to talk to your doctor in addition to checking the drug out on Rx Inspector.
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