Bluesky

Yes, thank you for saying this.

I also want to add that it gets more complex than that because it's something the general population isn't aware of.

During manufacturing, every batch also needs to be manually inspected in a lab via random sampling, and significant deviations sometimes result in the entire batch being discarded and made again from scratch. Or at least that's what should happen under proper regulatory supervision.

Unfortunately, the majority of manufacturers overseas are only regulated by the FDA (yes, really), which was running thin before the great rounds of layoffs. There have been multiple incidents where these inspections aren't done properly due to staff shortages and logistics, so patients end up with things like pieces of glass in their medication or even wrong dosages per bottle, and the manufacturer says fuck it, who's gonna look, and ships it instead of wasting money redoing the batch.

These are only two of the major scandals of the now-defunct company Ranbaxy Laboratories, where administrative oversight was often skirted in the name of profit.

So, while AI is directly involved in mixing, conditioning, and packaging, there are other significant issues with the proper oversight of these companies, which will no doubt continue to expand the use of AI to more sensitive areas, like quality control.

For anyone interested in the Ranbaxy scandal and its tragic and unsettling ending, I highly recommend the approachable and eye-opening book "A Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom" (2019) by Catherine Eban.