Katherine Eban: A dose of reality about generic drugs

A dose of reality about generic drugs

Investigative journalist Katherine Eban set out to report on a seemingly straightforward question: Are generic drugs really identical to their brand-name counterparts? The answer sparked a decade of interviews, meetings with whistleblowers, on-the-ground reporting across four continents and digging into confidential FDA documents. In this alarming talk, she takes us inside overseas manufacturing plants and exposes the fraud behind many low-cost generic medicines.

Many generic drugs, relied on by 90 percent of patients in the US, are manufactured in overseas plants that routinely cut corners and falsify data. Investigations uncovered widespread fraud, dangerous impurities, and regulatory blind spots, including FDA inspections announced months in advance. Whistleblowers risked their careers to expose these practices, revealing a global system that sometimes puts patient lives in jeopardy for profit. True safety requires rigorous oversight, not trust alone.