From: Pat 
Subject: SNET: Fwd: [BRIGADE] China's Secret Factory
Date: 12 Oct 2000 12:54:25 -0400
To: snetnews@topica.com

->  SNETNEWS  Mailing List

"Despite the tranquil appearance, the Hua Lian plant
is a secret factory of sorts. Its name and location
are shielded not by Chinese authorities, but by the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which two weeks ago
approved the sale of a product that workers here are
preparing to churn out for the American market--the
abortion drug RU-486....."

How appropriate.  China -- the country where babies
are drowned in rice paddies by the government death
squad because they exceed the one-child-per-family
rule -- will be the manufacturer of RU-486 for
American women.  

Now, the National Right to Life Committee, said the
news is "very disturbing." 

Disturbing?  

What is disturbing is that this phoney "Life"
organization is still telling pro-lifers to support GW
Bush -- the guy who can't muster up enough backbone to
even condem RU-486, only saying, "Gee, I don't think a
president can do anything about it."

What a demented situation our country has found itself
in. 

----------------

Chinese To Make RU-486 For U.S. 

The Hua Lian Pharmaceutical Co., which has produced
RU-486 for at least nine years in China, is preparing
to export the controversial abortion drug to the
United States. (Philip P. Pan - The Washington Post) 

By Philip P. Pan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, October 12, 2000; Page A01 

SHANGHAI, Oct. 11 -- The Hua Lian Pharmaceutical
factory emerges from fields of sorghum and green
onions an hour's drive south of downtown Shanghai. At
quitting time, workers board company buses that take
them back to the city. Others leave on bicycles,
pedaling toward nearby villages along narrow lanes
dotted with oxen.  

Despite the tranquil appearance, the Hua Lian plant is
a secret factory of sorts. Its name and location are
shielded not by Chinese authorities, but by the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration, which two weeks ago
approved the sale of a product that workers here are
preparing to churn out for the American market--the
abortion drug RU-486.  

Supporters of RU-486, which offers an alternative to
surgical abortions, have for years sought a
manufacturer to produce it for the U.S. market, ever
since boycott threats by antiabortion activists led
the drug's French developers to renounce U.S.
production in 1992. For eight years, no pharmaceutical
company would develop it for sale in the United
States.  

So when the FDA announced it had approved the sale of
RU-486, it took the unprecedented step of refusing to
disclose the name or location of the manufacturer,
citing concerns about employee safety and security.
The drug's U.S. distributor, Danco Laboratories, also
refused to identify the firm.  

But several Chinese officials and the head of a
Bangkok-based foundation that has worked closely with
the company confirmed today that Hua Lian
Pharmaceutical Co. will produce the drug for the
United States.  

An FDA official in Washington declined to comment,
citing the agency's position that it would not
disclose the location of the manufacturing site. Danco
said in a statement from its New York offices that the
site was inspected by the FDA to make sure it met the
agency's requirements but that it could not 
identify the plant or comment on its location because
of a confidentiality agreement.  

The fact that a state-owned company in China will be
producing RU-486, or mifepristone, for U.S. consumers
could become part of a debate over the drug in the
United States. Told of the Chinese factory's role,
U.S. antiabortion activists said they intend to
question the safety and purity of Chinese
pharmaceuticals and tie the drug to China's
controversial one-child policy and human rights
record.  

Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National
Right to Life Committee, said his group found the news
"very disturbing." He also criticized the FDA for its
refusal to reveal that the manufacturer was in China,
saying the agency's rationale was "highly
implausible."  

"They said they wanted to protect the company from
violence or protests, but it's ludicrous to say that
is an issue in China, where demonstrations aren't
permitted," he added. "It's a public relations problem
they want to avoid--they don't want the association
with Chinese coercive abortion practices."  

RU-486 has been a key ingredient in China's population
control strategy for years. Of the estimated 10
million abortions performed annually in China, about
half are carried out with RU-486, said Gao Ersheng,
director of the Shanghai Institute of Planned
Parenthood Research.  

Hua Lian has been making RU-486 for at least nine
years, one of three companies in China that
manufacture the drug. Established in 1939 and
nationalized after the 1949 Communist revolution, it
is one of the largest pharmaceutical firms in China,
according to its Web site.  

With the help of the Rockefeller Foundation and the
Bangkok-based Concept Foundation, the company has been
working for three years to upgrade its equipment and
retrain its staff to meet international standards in
order to be permitted to export the drug.  
The Concept Foundation was established by the World
Health Organization and World Bank in 1989 to assist
factories in developing countries to make medical
products at low cost for Third World health agencies.
The Rockefeller Foundation gave $2 million to the
group in 1997 to help Hua Lian and China's state
family planning agency upgrade the factory.  

Joachim Oehler, who heads the Concept Foundation, said
the goal was to enable Hua Lian to produce
export-quality RU-486 to be used in China and
elsewhere as an emergency contraceptive. He said the
foundations knew that would also allow Hua Lian to
export the drug to be used for inducing abortions, but
that that was not their goal.  

Oehler said FDA inspectors spent a week at the factory
in July and agreed to allow Hua Lian to produce RU-486
in bulk amounts for export to the United States. The
factory is not certified to export RU-486 in pill
form, but Oehler said he expects it to meet those
standards in three to five months.  

In the meantime, he said, Hua Lian will send RU-486 in
amounts of about 100 pounds to another factory that
will make it into pills. He said he does not know the
location of the other factory but assumes it is in the
United States and does not know if other factories
elsewhere might manufacture the drug for U.S. use.  

"If you compare it with other manufacturers in China,
they are among the tops in terms of their production
standards," Oehler said of Hua Lian. "The factory is
in very good shape. It would not have survived the FDA
inspection otherwise."  

The Hua Lian Pharmaceutical Co. denied multiple
requests for interviews or a tour of the factory, as
did its corporate parent, the Shanghai Pharmaceutical
Group Corp. But Gao and three Hua Lian officials said
the factory will be making RU-486 for export to the
United States.  

Oehler said it is unclear how much RU-486 the factory
will produce annually, but he said it can manufacture
at least half a ton a year, or enough to meet the
entire world demand.  

Neither abortion nor RU-486 is a subject of moral
debate in China in the way it is in the United
States.  

During the first decades of Communist rule, government
authorization was required to obtain an abortion, and
it was often difficult to obtain, especially for
unmarried women. As a result, women often sought
abortions from illegal providers, who often prescribed
various forms of folk medicine. In the 1970s, though,
China began to adopt population control measures and
the government changed its policy, allowing women to
obtain abortions without government approval.  

China began experimenting with RU-486 as early as
1983, participating in clinical trials with the World
Health Organization. In 1988, along with France, it
became one of the first countries to approve the drug.
By the mid-1990s, the drug had become popular for
women seeking an alternative to surgical abortion.  

Gao, the director of the research institute,
attributed the popularity of the drug in part to the
fact that most surgical abortions in China are
performed without anesthesia and are thus extremely
painful. In addition, many Chinese women choose RU-486
because they fear that complications during surgical
abortions might harm their ability to have children
later, other experts said.  

"RU-486 has given women more choices, and it's been
beneficial to women's health. It has also helped us
limit the growth of the population," Gao said.  

He also said he was not surprised by the debate in the
United States. "My feeling is that isn't should be
opposed. But if you oppose abortion, I understand. But
you shouldn't oppose it just because it's made in
China. That shouldn't matter at all."  

Staff writer Marc Kaufman in Washington contributed to
this report.

© 2000 The Washington Post
 
 
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 On the Trail....
 with Pat Buchanan and Ezola Foster
 http://www.buchananreform.com/trail/trailmain.asp
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Internet Brigade Headquarters
 http://www.buchanan.org
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 BUCHANAN-FOSTER 2000 HQ
 1-800-GO-PAT-GO
 http://www.buchananreform.com
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


=====
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


"If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not so costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no chance of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves." -- Winston Churchill

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get Yahoo! Mail - Free email you can access from anywhere!
http://mail.yahoo.com/


-> To unsubscribe send email to snetnews-unsubscribe@topica.com
___________________________________________________________
T O P I C A  The Email You Want. http://www.topica.com/t/16
Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Your Favorite Topics