“I’m scared to death.” Behind the shortage that prevents cancer patients from undergoing chemotherapy
Key drugs are in short supply, revealing a deep crisis in the generic drug industry.
Stephanie Scanlan learned the scariest way this spring about the shortage of basic chemotherapy drugs. Two of the three drugs typically used to treat his rare bone cancer were too rare. She should move on without them.
Mrs. Scanlan, 56, director of a busy state office in Tallahassee, Fla., had sought the drugs for months as the cancer spread from her wrist to her rib to her spine. By summer, it was clear that her left wrist and hand would have to be amputated.
"I'm scared to death," she said as she was preparing for the operation. "This is America. Why do we have to choose who we save?"
This year's disruption of the supply of key chemotherapy drugs has brought the worst to fruition fears of patients – and the healthcare system as a whole – because some people with aggressive cancer have been unable to get the treatment they need.
These drugs and hundreds of other generic drugs, including amoxicillin to treat infections and fentanyl to soothe infections. pain during surgery remains rare. But the worsening of the attack has not favored solutions to improve the supply of generic drugs, which account for 90 percent of prescriptions in the United States.
Dr. Robert Califf, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration , outlined changes the agency could make to improve the situation. But he added that the root of the problem "is due to economic factors that we do not control."
“They are beyond the remit of the FDA,” he declared. said.
Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, agreed. “A substantial part of these market failures is due to the consolidation of generic drug purchases within a small group of very powerful health care intermediaries,” he said at a hearing this month -ci.
In interviews, more than a dozen current and former executives affiliated with the generic drug industry described numerous risks that discourage a company to increase production to ease shortages.
They said prices were so low that making life-saving drugs could put them out of business. It is a system in which more than 200 generic drug manufacturers compete, sometimes fiercely, for contracts with three intermediary companies that keep the door to a large number of customers.
In some cases, generic drug manufacturers offer rock-bottom prices to get ahead of their competitors in coveted deals. In other cases, middlemen — called group purchasing organizations — demand lower prices within days of signing a contract with a drug manufacturer.
The downward pressure on prices — arguably often a boon to the pocketbooks of patients and taxpayers — is intense. The group's buyers compete to offer hospitals the cheapest products, which intermediary companies say also benefits consumers. They collect fees from drug manufacturers based on the amount of drugs hospitals buy.
“The business model is broken,” said George Zorich, a pharmacist and retired generic drug industry executive. . “It’s great for G.P.O. Not great for drug makers, not great for patients in some cases. »
Key drugs are in short supply, revealing a deep crisis in the generic drug industry.
Stephanie Scanlan learned the scariest way this spring about the shortage of basic chemotherapy drugs. Two of the three drugs typically used to treat his rare bone cancer were too rare. She should move on without them.
Mrs. Scanlan, 56, director of a busy state office in Tallahassee, Fla., had sought the drugs for months as the cancer spread from her wrist to her rib to her spine. By summer, it was clear that her left wrist and hand would have to be amputated.
"I'm scared to death," she said as she was preparing for the operation. "This is America. Why do we have to choose who we save?"
This year's disruption of the supply of key chemotherapy drugs has brought the worst to fruition fears of patients – and the healthcare system as a whole – because some people with aggressive cancer have been unable to get the treatment they need.
These drugs and hundreds of other generic drugs, including amoxicillin to treat infections and fentanyl to soothe infections. pain during surgery remains rare. But the worsening of the attack has not favored solutions to improve the supply of generic drugs, which account for 90 percent of prescriptions in the United States.
Dr. Robert Califf, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration , outlined changes the agency could make to improve the situation. But he added that the root of the problem "is due to economic factors that we do not control."
“They are beyond the remit of the FDA,” he declared. said.
Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, agreed. “A substantial part of these market failures is due to the consolidation of generic drug purchases within a small group of very powerful health care intermediaries,” he said at a hearing this month -ci.
In interviews, more than a dozen current and former executives affiliated with the generic drug industry described numerous risks that discourage a company to increase production to ease shortages.
They said prices were so low that making life-saving drugs could put them out of business. It is a system in which more than 200 generic drug manufacturers compete, sometimes fiercely, for contracts with three intermediary companies that keep the door to a large number of customers.
In some cases, generic drug manufacturers offer rock-bottom prices to get ahead of their competitors in coveted deals. In other cases, middlemen — called group purchasing organizations — demand lower prices within days of signing a contract with a drug manufacturer.
The downward pressure on prices — arguably often a boon to the pocketbooks of patients and taxpayers — is intense. The group's buyers compete to offer hospitals the cheapest products, which intermediary companies say also benefits consumers. They collect fees from drug manufacturers based on the amount of drugs hospitals buy.
“The business model is broken,” said George Zorich, a pharmacist and retired generic drug industry executive. . “It’s great for G.P.O. Not great for drug makers, not great for patients in some cases. »
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