The state-owned Chinese pharmaceutical manufacturers Shanghai Hualian, the only suppliers of the abortion pill RU-486 to the United States, have paralyzed or injured over 200 cancer patients in China with tainted leukemia drugs. According to the New York Times, the factory that produced the contaminated drugs has been closed, and the factory that makes RU-486 (aka mifepristone) is an hour away. This is the first time the F.D.A. is publicly announcing the American supplier of the abortion pill; the Times reports that the F.D.A. kept the manufacturers a secret because of security concerns stemming from “sometimes violent opposition to abortion.”
Although a FDA spokesman said “[We are] not aware of any evidence to suggest the issue that occurred at the leukemia drug facility is linked in any way with the facility that manufactures the mifepristone”, Shanghai Hualian doesn’t exactly have the greatest recrod: In 2002, shipments from the company were stopped at the U.S. border because they were unapproved or mislabeled, and pharmaceutical behemoth Pfizer won’t import from Hualian at all because of its concerns with quality issues.
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