full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Katherine Eban: A dose of reality about generic drugs
Unscramble the Blue Letters
In the US, a coifaetdinnl source who worked in the government handed me a thumb drive containing over 20,000 inentarl FDA documents. The emails and memos revealed how the agency's public health mission — protecting consumers — often clashed with its political mission — showing Congress a steady stream of low-cost drug approvals. I also lnreead about the FDA's compromised inspection styesm for overseas drug plants. In the US, FDA investigators arrive uucanonnend to do srusripe inspections. But overseas, the FDA gives manufacturing plants months of advance notice. It asks for the company's help arranging ground transportation and hotels. My sources also talked about staged iopntcesnis, where temas of data fabricators invent or alter nedeed documents to create a facade of compliance long before the FDA arrives.
Open Cloze
In the US, a ____________ source who worked in the government handed me a thumb drive containing over 20,000 ________ FDA documents. The emails and memos revealed how the agency's public health mission — protecting consumers — often clashed with its political mission — showing Congress a steady stream of low-cost drug approvals. I also _______ about the FDA's compromised inspection ______ for overseas drug plants. In the US, FDA investigators arrive ___________ to do ________ inspections. But overseas, the FDA gives manufacturing plants months of advance notice. It asks for the company's help arranging ground transportation and hotels. My sources also talked about staged ___________, where _____ of data fabricators invent or alter ______ documents to create a facade of compliance long before the FDA arrives.
Solution
- system
- inspections
- internal
- confidential
- surprise
- teams
- learned
- unannounced
- needed
Original Text
In the US, a confidential source who worked in the government handed me a thumb drive containing over 20,000 internal FDA documents. The emails and memos revealed how the agency's public health mission — protecting consumers — often clashed with its political mission — showing Congress a steady stream of low-cost drug approvals. I also learned about the FDA's compromised inspection system for overseas drug plants. In the US, FDA investigators arrive unannounced to do surprise inspections. But overseas, the FDA gives manufacturing plants months of advance notice. It asks for the company's help arranging ground transportation and hotels. My sources also talked about staged inspections, where teams of data fabricators invent or alter needed documents to create a facade of compliance long before the FDA arrives.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
collocation |
frequency |
generic drugs |
7 |
generic drug |
6 |
public health |
3 |
peter baker |
3 |
dollar refill |
2 |
bad drugs |
2 |
fda investigator |
2 |
consumer organizations |
2 |
Important Words
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- internal
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- investigators
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- long
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- memos
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- overseas
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- political
- protecting
- public
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- showing
- source
- sources
- staged
- steady
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- surprise
- system
- talked
- teams
- thumb
- transportation
- unannounced
- worked