Certainly, at hospitals. In fact, the shortage of injectable generics for cancer and other serious diseases is forcing many hospitals to scramble to locate meds or find alternatives. In some cases, the FDA has allowed imports, but the agency approval process has also meant fewer new available generics. “We think this is near a crisis situation,” Bona Benjamin, a director at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, a pharmacist trade group, tells The Wall Street Journal.
Numbers, of course, help tell the story. The FDA reports a record 178 drug shortages in 2010, up from 157 the year earlier and 55 five years ago. And here is the latest list. You’ll notice this is much shorter than the list indicating shortages that have been resolved (take a peek).
The problem, by the way, has been exacerbated by difficulties at Teva Pharmaceuticals and Hospira, which are two of the larger generic suppliers. Both, however, have received warning letters citing contamination and other problems (see here andhere). And Teva temporarily closed a plant in California last April to upgrade it, the paper notes, exacerbating shortages of chemotherapy drugs.
This is actually not the real crisis. The real crisis is that so few new and generic equivalent drugs are being 'approved' by our 'public servants'. After a blaze of reform in the first Bush administration, the bureaucratic wheels have slowly, surely ground to a halt. 'ain't no gain to the bureaucracy in approving drugs, just risk. Of course I 'dedicated', 'sophisticated', 'committed' media will pin the blame on 'greedy drug makers' who won't work at a loss.
It goes without saying that state level regulation would be less onerous and because of state to state competition, would be less risk averse and more market focused.
Break it up, break it all up.
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