HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

America's Shortage Of 130 Medications

Support Forums
>
Prostate Cancer
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 5/21/2023 7:18 PM (GMT 0)
It was stunning, staggering, and jaw-dropping to hear Margaret Brennan interview Dr. Scott Gottlieb this morning on "Face The Nation" ...

A written transcript of the interview is available on CBS NEWS online.

Dr. Gottlieb is the former director of the FDA and shared that the FDA has announced that America is facing a shortage of 130 key medications currently ~ including critical and life-saving cancer medications.

I don't have the answers, but there's got to be a solution to this.

The ramifications of this are worrisome and sobering ...

I'd like to wake up tomorrow morning and be in charge of the world for just a day & this would be one of the things I would FIX with my magic wand ...

CYCLONE ~ # Iowa State University
Posted 5/22/2023 8:23 AM (GMT 0)
Drug shortages are a big concern. In talking with the nurse coordinator of the Pluvicto program DH is enrolled in, she said that due to the Pluvicto shortage, some patients progressed too rapidly while waiting for the drug. Then the program was put on hold and not accepting new patients. This cost lives. It seems to be that one solution is bringing back manufacturing to the US, not just for Pluvicto, but for many of the drugs in shortage.
Posted 5/22/2023 11:20 AM (GMT 0)
With PLUVICTO (Lutetium-177) being a new form of treatment for our prostate cancer comrades, we certainly want it to be readily available.

It has already helped some of our battle brothers here.

A few years back, a friend of mine was undergoing chemotherapy treatments for prostate cancer. A hurricane in Puerto Rico or Haiti damaged a medical manufacturing company, and the supply chain was broken.

His chemotherapy infusions were put on hold and he became frightened and understandably frantic ~ as he was right in the middle of his treatment course.

Dr. Kwon, at Mayo Clinic, moved HEAVEN and EARTH, and eventually found enough chemotherapy components to help my friend finish his treatments.

I will never forget the anguish that my friend endured, when the supply chain was broken during his treatments.

There needs to be a bright light shining on this issue of medication shortages.

Thoughts to share ~

CYCLONE ~ # Iowa State University
Posted 5/22/2023 12:36 PM (GMT 0)
The drug shortage situation is complicated and many factors are involved based on what I have read. While I don’t agree with all I read, there are some things that are plausible.

There is actually a part of shortages that is hoarding like toilet paper disappearing early in the pandemic. The supply vs. demand is tightly balanced for many items so just the reporting of possible shortage of OTC meds can create a shortage or hospitals doing similar things to be prepared.

One item commonly blamed is that there is little money in generics so there may be just one facility making a specific generic drug in the US and something breaks down or a key ingredient is in demand with just-in-time inventory levels and a shortage immediately ripples through the system with no alternative. Apparently there are a fair number of sole source suppliers for many generics with no backup plan.

The was a time in business when a company would never give one supplier all their business to avoid massive disruption if they had labor, material, or equipment problems. Could always swing more business to an alternate supplier and also helps keep the supply competitive. This all but gone in today’s business world so we get the predictable results.
Posted 5/23/2023 2:38 PM (GMT 0)
I have read a number of disturbing reports and several interviews with Gotlieb and others including Paul Krugman of The NY Times. Many are reporting it is more like 300 medications and mainly sterile injectables including many cancer therapeutics that are either injected or infused. Many of the reports reference the medication cost control methods recently enacted by the Inflation Reduction Act as part of the problem. You will remember that it was well publicized the Act would both allow Medicare to negotiate lower cost with pharmaceuticals and enable strict limits to be placed on 5 additional drugs each year. The most publicized one I remember is to bring Insulin to no more than $30 per vial in the first group.

Their reporting indicates that many of these injectables are difficult to produce, transport and store and that there is often a significant amount of spoilage contributing to significant cost in both patent and generic drugs. Further, many of these are very exacting and require that the generic strictly follow the patent formula and methods of manufacturing, thus often little savings for the generic. Due to very tight margins, many producers of generics have simply stopped producing drugs that are not profitable. Also, for manufacturing economics many of the generics have been outsourced to manufacturers in India and China and this brings quality control problems. Recently a large manufacturer in India was closed and has a significant amount of work and reinvestment to regain certification for their drugs to be used in the US. Obviously their investors have decisions to make and will only decide to reinvest if it will provide a return on their investment.

It has long been reported that some cancer medications in wide use in the US have not been available in the United Kingdom as the National Health Service has deemed many to just be too expensive to use, regardless of their efficacy. It is important that our reimbursement institutions of third party payors and government regulation and legislation find the proper balance between cost and availability to ensure that we get the drugs that are effective and that the development of new and improved drugs are continuously developed. Hopefully, we get past this current shortage in short order and not experience it again.
Posted 5/23/2023 6:07 PM (GMT 0)

JNF said...

It has long been reported that some cancer medications in wide use in the US have not been available in the United Kingdom as the National Health Service has deemed many to just be too expensive to use, regardless of their efficacy. It is important that our reimbursement institutions of third party payors and government regulation and legislation find the proper balance between cost and availability to ensure that we get the drugs that are effective...

I have railed against the cost of Xtandi in several posts recently. The cost of Xtandi in 2021 was about $144,000 per year, jumping to about $189,000 last year. I've been on Xtandi for over four years. It's quite possible (hopefully) that I could be on the drug for several more years. So, the total cost could easily exceed 2 million dollars. I find that bothersome and I think about it sometimes.

What really galls me is that the cost of Xtandi is much less in other affluent countries -- up to 80% less if you believe the internet. I suppose this is because the differently structured healthcare systems in other countries refuse to tolerate absurdly priced medications, while our system is willing to absorb it.

I'm not really trying to be political here. There is no other place in the world I'd rather be treated, but the economics of US healthcare seems to be full of legal scams and probably isn't sustainable. Are we in the process of screwing those who come after us?

I feel lucky that I'm still able to get my medications so far.
Posted 6/10/2023 12:34 PM (GMT 0)
National news just reported there continues to be critical shortages of certain cancer-fighting medications and common chemotherapy components such as carboplatin and cisplatin ~ often used in individualized chemotherapy "cocktails" for more impactful results.

I'm sure this situation is stressful for patients, as well as oncologists.

CYCLONE ~ # ISU
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply