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American Morning
Major Announcement Expected This Morning on Human Cloning
Aired December 27, 2002 - 08:42 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We are paging Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a very full plate. We're going to be talking about human cloning, a major announcement expected this morning on human cloning. Also, a source for discount drugs could be a prescription for danger. The good doctor is here to tell us more.
Let's talk drugs first and then cloning.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: People complain all the time about how expensive medications are, and if you don't have a very good insurance plan, they can be really problematic, taking up a good chunk of your salary, so there have been all sorts of different strategies people are trying to employ to try and cut down on the costs, whether it's buying it over the Internet or whether it's buying from foreign countries. Canada and Mexico come to mind since they're so close.
Actually, I'm from Michigan, and people used to actually just cross the border and go buy medications there all of the time. But what if you could buy from those foreign pharmacies right here in America? That's exactly what's happening in some places across the country, they're actually opening up these pharmacies and actually ordering the drugs from another country, bringing them in and giving them to consumers, to patients at heavily discounted prices.
Daryn, as you mentioned, that does have some people pretty concerned. Let's take a look at what the FDA thinks about this. They think the overall concern about foreign versions of U.S. drugs is safety or efficacy. The main concern is public health. People may be putting themselves at risk, and that is the biggest concern.
KAGAN: How so?
GUPTA: Well, are these drugs as safe, are they as tested as the American drugs that people are sort of used to? Are they getting the same sort of rigorous analysis before they're actually coming to the pharmacy? Some argue no, others say, you know what, there is really no big difference and let's instead focus on the price and take a look at the cost differences between the United States' drugs, and here is some examples, Tamoxifen, 34 bucks in Canada, $241 in the United States, 86 percent savings. You can look through the list there. But you know, anywhere from a 29 to 86 percent savings on some of these medications.
KAGAN: I'm sorry, but just looking at some of these drugs, Tamoxifen, a breast cancer patient would be taking that, right?
GUPTA: That's right.
Yes, Celebrex, most common an antiinflammatory, a $6 billion industry. That $77 price tag may be part of that $6 billion, half the price in Canada.
KAGAN: And Lipitor, that's for...
GUPTA: Cholesterol?
And Prilosec, that's for ulcers, to try and take the wart (ph) off ulcers.
Here's some other examples, Prozac, an antidepressant, Zocor, another cholesterol medication, and Zoloft, another antidepressant.
These are some of the most common medications, but there are a lot of medications that people will see out that have these greatly reducing price costs. So, Daryn, you're balancing costs and your balancing safety. This safety is not really that big an issue; they should be just as safe, but as you saw there from the comment of the FDA folks, they say, beware, buyer beware.
KAGAN: In the end, that is what that is.
We are aware of a situation or a news conference that's going to take place, we think, in about 15 minutes. Perhaps the announcement -- we won't know until we hear it, but perhaps the announcement that a human baby has been cloned.
GUPTA: Everybody has been speculating on this for quite sometime. An organization called the Raelians, sort of a fringe organization, and I say that term loosely, but an organization that believes that the Earth was populated by genetic clones and aliens. They're the ones who are going to be having this press conference, and they say that in fact they may be saying that a human baby has been cloned, a genetic match of the mother. So, gosh, I don't know what this is going to all amount to, but I'm sort of anxiously awaiting to see.
KAGAN: We will see, and we will be showing it live here on CNN. We've also been taking your e-mail and we'll be reading some of those, but basically, most of our viewers are not in favor of cloning a human baby.
GUPTA: Yes, you know, they've actually polled people around the country on this. And again, we talked about cloning, we talk about therapeutic cloning, and that's the kind of cloning that might lead to treatment for Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and there's the reproductive cloning, and I got to say that I don't think anybody that I've spoken to have been in favor. The polls around the country have suggested about 90 percent of Americans say bad idea, don't do it, no reproductive cloning. We will see what you say.
KAGAN: We will see that, and we'll see what they have to say out of Florida in 15 minutes. Thank you for all of that.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired December 27, 2002 - 08:42 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We are paging Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a very full plate. We're going to be talking about human cloning, a major announcement expected this morning on human cloning. Also, a source for discount drugs could be a prescription for danger. The good doctor is here to tell us more.
Let's talk drugs first and then cloning.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: People complain all the time about how expensive medications are, and if you don't have a very good insurance plan, they can be really problematic, taking up a good chunk of your salary, so there have been all sorts of different strategies people are trying to employ to try and cut down on the costs, whether it's buying it over the Internet or whether it's buying from foreign countries. Canada and Mexico come to mind since they're so close.
Actually, I'm from Michigan, and people used to actually just cross the border and go buy medications there all of the time. But what if you could buy from those foreign pharmacies right here in America? That's exactly what's happening in some places across the country, they're actually opening up these pharmacies and actually ordering the drugs from another country, bringing them in and giving them to consumers, to patients at heavily discounted prices.
Daryn, as you mentioned, that does have some people pretty concerned. Let's take a look at what the FDA thinks about this. They think the overall concern about foreign versions of U.S. drugs is safety or efficacy. The main concern is public health. People may be putting themselves at risk, and that is the biggest concern.
KAGAN: How so?
GUPTA: Well, are these drugs as safe, are they as tested as the American drugs that people are sort of used to? Are they getting the same sort of rigorous analysis before they're actually coming to the pharmacy? Some argue no, others say, you know what, there is really no big difference and let's instead focus on the price and take a look at the cost differences between the United States' drugs, and here is some examples, Tamoxifen, 34 bucks in Canada, $241 in the United States, 86 percent savings. You can look through the list there. But you know, anywhere from a 29 to 86 percent savings on some of these medications.
KAGAN: I'm sorry, but just looking at some of these drugs, Tamoxifen, a breast cancer patient would be taking that, right?
GUPTA: That's right.
Yes, Celebrex, most common an antiinflammatory, a $6 billion industry. That $77 price tag may be part of that $6 billion, half the price in Canada.
KAGAN: And Lipitor, that's for...
GUPTA: Cholesterol?
And Prilosec, that's for ulcers, to try and take the wart (ph) off ulcers.
Here's some other examples, Prozac, an antidepressant, Zocor, another cholesterol medication, and Zoloft, another antidepressant.
These are some of the most common medications, but there are a lot of medications that people will see out that have these greatly reducing price costs. So, Daryn, you're balancing costs and your balancing safety. This safety is not really that big an issue; they should be just as safe, but as you saw there from the comment of the FDA folks, they say, beware, buyer beware.
KAGAN: In the end, that is what that is.
We are aware of a situation or a news conference that's going to take place, we think, in about 15 minutes. Perhaps the announcement -- we won't know until we hear it, but perhaps the announcement that a human baby has been cloned.
GUPTA: Everybody has been speculating on this for quite sometime. An organization called the Raelians, sort of a fringe organization, and I say that term loosely, but an organization that believes that the Earth was populated by genetic clones and aliens. They're the ones who are going to be having this press conference, and they say that in fact they may be saying that a human baby has been cloned, a genetic match of the mother. So, gosh, I don't know what this is going to all amount to, but I'm sort of anxiously awaiting to see.
KAGAN: We will see, and we will be showing it live here on CNN. We've also been taking your e-mail and we'll be reading some of those, but basically, most of our viewers are not in favor of cloning a human baby.
GUPTA: Yes, you know, they've actually polled people around the country on this. And again, we talked about cloning, we talk about therapeutic cloning, and that's the kind of cloning that might lead to treatment for Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and there's the reproductive cloning, and I got to say that I don't think anybody that I've spoken to have been in favor. The polls around the country have suggested about 90 percent of Americans say bad idea, don't do it, no reproductive cloning. We will see what you say.
KAGAN: We will see that, and we'll see what they have to say out of Florida in 15 minutes. Thank you for all of that.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
