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

  1. system
  2. inspections
  3. internal
  4. confidential
  5. surprise
  6. teams
  7. learned
  8. unannounced
  9. 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

  1. advance
  2. alter
  3. approvals
  4. arranging
  5. arrive
  6. arrives
  7. asks
  8. clashed
  9. compliance
  10. compromised
  11. confidential
  12. congress
  13. consumers
  14. create
  15. data
  16. documents
  17. drive
  18. drug
  19. emails
  20. fabricators
  21. facade
  22. fda
  23. government
  24. ground
  25. handed
  26. health
  27. hotels
  28. inspection
  29. inspections
  30. internal
  31. invent
  32. investigators
  33. learned
  34. long
  35. manufacturing
  36. memos
  37. mission
  38. months
  39. needed
  40. notice
  41. overseas
  42. plants
  43. political
  44. protecting
  45. public
  46. revealed
  47. showing
  48. source
  49. sources
  50. staged
  51. steady
  52. stream
  53. surprise
  54. system
  55. talked
  56. teams
  57. thumb
  58. transportation
  59. unannounced
  60. worked