Rx-360's Patient Safety Podcast: An Interview With Best-Selling Author Katherine Eban

PHILADELPHIA, July 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Rx-360 released the fifth episode of The Patient Safety Podcast, featuring an interview with Katherine Eban, contributing editor for Vanity Fair and a New York Times best-selling author. The episode focuses on Eban's 2019 book, Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom, which unpacks the widespread corruption that has infected the 21st century global generic pharmaceutical industry.

Eban tells Rx-360 CEO, Jim Fries, that back in 2008 she was tipped off by internal whistleblower, Dinesh Thakur, about unethical practices occurring in Ranbaxy Laboratories, India's largest manufacturer of generic drugs. From there, what would become Bottle of Lies began.

"It took me a long time, but I uncovered the story of Ranbaxy, which was basically just an ongoing crime scene. They had pressed hundreds of employees into falsifying data . . . I began to wonder if this was the only company that was corrupt or if this was just the tip of the iceberg," said Eban.

The episode also covers Eban's reaction to the discovery of how far some manufacturers were willing to go to hide their crimes.

"There was an FDA inspector who showed up at a factory in India who suddenly sees an employee holding a garbage bag trying to sneak away . . . they eventually began a full-on chase scene where the inspector discovered the garbage bag was full of records of hidden defects," says Eban.

Despite the corruption and fraud, Eban emphasizes that there is still hope. According to her, the majority of individuals in the industry are working tirelessly to improve manufacturing ethics. The bottom line for Eban is that good practice is "all about company culture and the leadership," and both need to act ethically to ensure patient safety.

Rx-360 is a non-profit international pharmaceutical supply chain consortium formed in 2009 to support an industry-wide commitment to ensuring patient safety by enhancing quality and authenticity throughout the supply chain. The organization's mission is to protect patient safety by sharing information and developing processes related to the integrity of the healthcare supply chain and the quality of its materials primarily through its working group and unique audit program.

To learn more visit Rx-360.org or email [email protected]

SOURCE Rx-360