Bad batches more likely from offshore.(drug quality control from offshore manufacturing plants)(Pharmaceuticals)

Drugs produced in offshore manufacturing plants--even those run by American manufacturers--pose a greater quality risk than those prepared in tile mainland U.S.. suggests a study at Ohio State University. Columbus. Researchers found that drugs produced in Puerto Rican plants owned and operated by U.S. pharmaceutical firms were more likely to have quality problems than those produced by the same firm in a matched plant on the U.S. mainland.

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The results show how difficult it is to transfer world-class quality control to an offshore plant, even under the best of conditions, notes John Gray, lead author of time study and assistant professor of …