Thread by @annaedney

THREAD: With the Trump administration approving more generic drugs than ever, a yearlong @business investigation has found reasons to be concerned about what's in American's medicine cabinets.
bloomberg.com/news/features/…

Our series "The High Cost of Cheap Pills" kicks off today looking at how generic-drug making plants from West Virginia to China have tried to sidestep U.S. rules, leaving doubts about the data companies use to prove their treatments are safe & effective.

In my story today, FDA inspectors alleged Mylan attempted to keep failures of some of its drugs to meet U.S. standards from coming to light by using obscure file names, including one that ended in the acronym "LMFAO" (Laughing My F*cking Ass Off) bloomberg.com/news/features/…

The FDA relies on generic-drug manufacturers to give them accurate data, but not every company has - something the agency calls a "data integrity" problem. Here's what one industry consultant said:

More generics help @realDonaldTrump rack up wins in his drive to lower Rx prices

But data integrity issues are popping up at drug-manufacturing factories worldwide and the FDA is doing fewer surveillance inspections of those factories bloomberg.com/news/features/…

Startup @valisure is testing the drugs that it dispenses to patients and says that about 1 in 10 fail to meet U.S. standards, missing the mark on active ingredient amounts and rates at which they dissolve, crucial for the body's ability to absorb a pill bloomberg.com/news/features/…

Patients lives are on the line

While reporting this story I had the pleasure of getting to know Dick Farrell, who died in September, just after his 40th wedding anniversary. His doctor wonders if his generic heart medication might bear some of the blame.

Stay tuned for more throughout the week as we dive into this crucial topic "The High Cost of Cheap Pills"