FDA Greenlights Cancer Drug From China Amid Shortage

America is short on cancer drugs, and the Food and Drug Administration is turning to China for help. The country is grappling with a nationwide shortage of over a dozen chemotherapy drugs. The lacking supply is forcing doctors to look to other alternatives that might not be as effective. To ease the shortage, the FDA has approved Cisplatin imports from a Chinese drugmaker. Over 10 percent of cancer patients use the drug, which has a 90 percent cure rate for testicular cancer. It also treats bladder, ovarian, lung, and head cancers. The drug is available for healthcare providers to order. Reactions to the news have been mixed. Some say boosting drug supply from China is helpful, others have voiced concerns. Rosemary Gibson, an expert with the bioethics think tank, said Beijing could use medicines as a weapon against the U.S. Gibson noted, 'Supplies can be withheld. Medicines can be made with lethal contaminants or sold without any real medicine in them, rendering them ineffective.' America has been relying on China and India for its drug supply. The U.S. gets almost 90 percent of its ingredients for generic drugs from other countries, much of them coming from India and China. And China appears clear-eyed about this vulnerability. Beijing’s mouthpiece Xinhua news agency said in 2020 that the world should thank China instead of blaming it for the CCP virus -- which causes COVID-19. Arguing if China stopped exporting drugs to the U.S., America would quote “sink into the hell of a novel coronavirus epidemic.”