France seizes a million doses of fake Chinese aspirin

[xchrom]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/25/france-seizes-a-million-doses-of-fake-chinese-aspirin/



French customs officers have seized 1.2 million doses of counterfeit aspirin from China, the biggest haul of fake medicines ever in France and the EU, the economy ministry announced Saturday.

The goods, seized May 17 in the northwestern port of Le Havre, were hidden in a cargo of tea that arrived from China, the ministry said in a statement. The powder was mostly glucose and contained no active ingredients.

The fake aspirin was to have been sent to a Spanish company based in the Balearic Islands for distribution in the Iberian peninsula, the south of France and French-speaking Africa, the ministry said.

[dorkzilla]

1. Asprin???? Is there NOTHING the Chinese won't counterfeit???? n/t

[xchrom]

4. the article doesn't say -- but if they seized a million doses this time --

is there more floating around and if so where are they?

[dorkzilla]

6. but its such a CHEAP item, why in the world would they even bother??

I'm so confused

[JHB]

12. Because if you can pass a cheaper fake off, you pocket the difference

Besides, the market is so huge, who'd know?

But now that it's been caught, the owner of that company is now going to be in hot water with whatever Chinese Communist Party officials he gives bribes to for making them look bad. Things don't go well for those who party officials feel need to be cut loose and made an example.

[Purplehazed]

17. In 2 words "maximize profits"

This philosophy isn't unique to the US. Damn the consumer, hail the shareholder.

[madokie]

8. I'd notice they were fake as soon as I took one

As I chew my aspirin. Some reason I have it in my head that they would work faster that way plus I like the taste . Why I like the taste I have no idea but I do

[xchrom]

9. i'm making that face when one sucks on a lemon.

just reading that you chew your aspirin made my face jump to contortions.

[madokie]

10. Sorry, mybad

[Cirque du So-What]

11. I can tolerate the taste of aspirin

but I don't go out of my way to savor the flavor.

[watrwefitinfor]

20. Greetings, fellow aspirin chewer!

I love the taste of aspirin, and I know why. My parents would occasionally give me one when I was sick. Bring too little to swallow it whole, they would have me chew it up when I was sick. (This was way before baby aspirin and way, way before anyone said not to give aspirin to babies.)

That was about the only time they paid me any attention at all. I came to associate the taste of aspirin with parental love. To me, it is comfort food. I'm just lucky I didn't become a hypochondriac.



Wat

[madokie]

22. I don't know whether to laugh or cry

Now that its confession time, when I was a kid I liked the taste of chalk too

[Jazzgirl]

23. Don't forget starch!

We used to eat it by the handful.

[Warpy]

28. It's recommended you chew your aspirin

if you ever have signs of a heart attack, chew it while you're waiting for the ambulance. Some of it is absorbed through your cheeks and the rest gets into your bloodstream faster if there is no pill to break down.

It also feels great if you've got a really bad sore throat. Ice cream and popsicles feel better, but if you're trying to bring down a temperature at the same time, go ahead and chew it and get double benefit.

For headaches, not so much.

[Buzz Clik]

15. At least is was glucose and not melamine or arsenic or whatever.

Still...

[MineralMan]

2. Aspirin? One of the least expensive drugs to manufacture

there is. How much could they possibly have saved by leaving out the active chemical in that? I just don't understand where the economy comes from.

[pipoman]

5. What ever it is, multipy it by 1.2 million

and the answer will probably be more clear..

[MineralMan]

7. Yes, I suppose. But, tablets that don't contain

the actual aspiring should be fairly easy to detect on opening the bottle. Real aspirin will smell slightly of vinegar when you first open the bottle. If not, then there's probably no aspirin in there. Not a strong smell, which would indicate a breakdown of the active ingredient, but a slight vinegar smell is normal, especially when you first open a new bottle.

Personally, I always sniff medications before taking them.

[Cirque du So-What]

16. The active ingredient

is acetylsalicylic acid, which I learned to synthesize from salicylic acid and acetic anhydride in undergrad organic chemistry class. Commercial production is a straightforward process that imposes nothing approaching economic hardship upon the manufacturer.

Chinese manufacturers have really proven themselves to be evil bastards in recent years, and I can think of nothing worse than the case a few years back where melamine was put in infant formula:

A number of criminal prosecutions occurred, with two people being executed, another given a suspended death penalty, three others receiving life imprisonment, two receiving 15-year jail terms, and seven local government officials, as well as the Director of the Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) being fired or forced to resign.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal

Even though I remain steadfast in my opposition to capital punishment, I wish those running domestic companies were held to the same legal responsibility as those involved with the scandal mentioned above. Besides, US companies are still buying pharmaceuticals and foodstuffs from Chinese companies, despite an abysmal record of contamination that is most definitely criminal.

[idwiyo]

3. I doubt this is the only shipment. Thanks gawd its mostly glucose and hopefully there is nothing

else to harm anyone in this fake shit.

[Zorra]

13. I don't put anything that comes from China in my body.

Industrial and Agricultural regulations seem to be nonexistent there.

I try not to buy any products from China, but China has monopolized our marketplace and sometimes I am forced to buy the inferior Chinese product because nothing else is available.

[no_hypocrisy]

14. Quelle surprise . . . . .

Does China make ANYTHING that hasn't been adulterated?

[bettyellen]

18. Remember all the drywall infested with cockaroach eggs? China is well aware that most retailers

have gutted their QA programs for every product- this is happening with food clothing shelter, everything.
The hoops we used to go through to make sure clothing is safe and durable are mostly gone. Only super high liability/ bad publicity issues are dealt with. No one ever says "This price is too good to be true", and looks deeper.

[otohara]

19. China You're Fired

if anyone thinks veges from China marked "organic" are really organic, I have a bridge, broken bridge to sell you.

[Poll_Blind]

21. That is fuckin' GRADE A NASTY. For a commie country they seem more like out of control capitalists.

PB

[Ron Green]

24. "Communist China" is what the right-wing pundits like to call it.

China is no more true to Marx than was the USSR. Their state apparatus exists to allow state capitalism to work.

[felix_numinous]

25. My first thought was Walmart generics

--I wonder where they come from. I am trying online to find out but so far cannot. Maybe someone on DU knows.

[unblock]

26. this article almost seems like a joke set-up.

i'll believe that there's some serious counterfeiting going on here but if you look closely at what they actually SAID:

they're accusing them of shipping a powder that was "mostly glucose and contained no active ingredients" "hidden in a cargo of tea".

what? really? tea and... and... sugar? say it ain't so! the bastards!



oh and just to be clear, i'm sure the pic is a stock pic of aspirin.

like i said, i'm sure actual counterfeiting is going on, but the article is not very convincing!

[Junkdrawer]

27. Told ya subtitling "The Third Man" in Mandarin was a bad idea...