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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDrug Shortages Continue to Vex Doctors
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/11/health/shortages-of-critical-drugs-continue-to-vex-doctors-study-finds.html?_r=0In recent years, drug shortages have become an all but permanent part of the American medical landscape. The most common ones are for generic versions of sterile injectable drugs, partly because factories that make them are aging and prone to quality problems, causing temporary closings of production lines or even entire factories.
The analysis by the United States Government Accountability Office, released Monday, was required by a 2012 law that gave the Food and Drug Administration more power to manage shortages. The watchdog agency was designated to evaluate whether the F.D.A. had improved its response to the problem, among other things.
The accountability office concluded that the F.D.A. was preventing many more shortages now than in the past 154 potential shortages in 2012 compared with just 35 in 2010 but that the total number of shortages has continued to grow. In 2012, the number of drugs in short supply, both new and long-term, was 456, the report said, up from 154 in 2007. Such drugs now include the heart medicine nitroglycerin, and cisatracurium, which is used to paralyze muscles during surgery and for patients on ventilators.
We are at a public health crisis when we dont have the medicines to treat acutely ill patients and we dont have the basics like intravenous fluids, said Erin Fox, a drug expert at the University of Utah whose data was used in the analysis. The most acute shortage now is that of basic IV fluids, she said.
The analysis by the United States Government Accountability Office, released Monday, was required by a 2012 law that gave the Food and Drug Administration more power to manage shortages. The watchdog agency was designated to evaluate whether the F.D.A. had improved its response to the problem, among other things.
The accountability office concluded that the F.D.A. was preventing many more shortages now than in the past 154 potential shortages in 2012 compared with just 35 in 2010 but that the total number of shortages has continued to grow. In 2012, the number of drugs in short supply, both new and long-term, was 456, the report said, up from 154 in 2007. Such drugs now include the heart medicine nitroglycerin, and cisatracurium, which is used to paralyze muscles during surgery and for patients on ventilators.
We are at a public health crisis when we dont have the medicines to treat acutely ill patients and we dont have the basics like intravenous fluids, said Erin Fox, a drug expert at the University of Utah whose data was used in the analysis. The most acute shortage now is that of basic IV fluids, she said.
Let's see, drug profits are soaring yet reinvestment in plant and equipment lags. So much for the benefits of giving them tax breaks.
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Drug Shortages Continue to Vex Doctors (Original Post)
Scuba
Feb 2014
OP
bemildred
(90,061 posts)1. For profit medicine. It's all about cutting costs. nt
Laelth
(32,017 posts)2. k&r for exposure. n/t
-Laelth
louis-t
(23,309 posts)3. So, asking them to reinvest in more factories to improve supply
and possibly lower the cost of drugs is like asking the oil companies to build more refineries to increase supply and lower the cost of gas. They're not going to do it.