Washington, Sep 4 - Shortages of vital drugs, particularly cancer-fighting medication, have raised concerns in the United States, where regulators often have to race to try to find replacements.
A recent report by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
found that the number of important treatments that are
difficult or impossible to find nearly tripled from 61 to 178
between 2005 and 2010.
Most of the rare medications are for hospital use,
including sterile injections, intravenous treatments,
anesthetics and antibiotics. The products include both
name-brand and generic drugs.
ÒFDA hears from patients and also from healthcare
professionals and organizations about the terrible impact the
shortages have had,Ó spokeswoman Shelly Burgess said.
ÒWe continue to do all we can under our current authority
to address shortages when they occur.
The FDA's efforts are hindered, however, because it
cannot force private pharmaceutical companies to produce
certain drugs or even require them to notify the agency when
they plan to discontinue one, Burgess said.
In 2010 it was able to avert 38 shortages, mainly by
persuading other manufacturers to produce the drugs or helping
to resolve production issues.
But a survey of 820 hospitals carried out in June by the
American Hospital Association found that almost all had run
out of an important drug over the past six months.
Eighty-per cent said they had to delay patient treatments
because of drug scarcity, and 70 per cent said they
administered less effective treatments.
ÒWe really need to take a very careful look at what is
going on. I have never seen anything like this and I have been
a pharmacist for over 40 years,Ó says Mike Cohen, a pharmacist
at the non-profit Safe Medical Practices.
The group recently surveyed 1,800 health professionals
and found that a third of doctors and a fifth of pharmacists
were aware of adverse reactions in their patients, including
deaths because of drug shortages.
Cynthia Reilly of the American Society of Health System
Pharmacists says the Òdramatic increaseÓ in shortages is in
part due to Òquality issues.Ó
ÒIn a lot of instances the manufacturer is either having
problems with the production lines or perhaps they found
particular products in vials so they have to do a recall,Ó she
said.
Reilly fears the shortages will worsen as the
pharmaceutical industry continues to consolidate, and as more
companies stop producing generic drugs because they are less
profitable.
(People often visits Walmart Stores for medicines, but they return empty handed.)
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