Record shortages of prescription drugs in the United States are forcing pharmacists and doctors to scramble to find medications for their patients or to delay potentially lifesaving treatments.
Medical professionals say they've been able to blunt the impact by turning to alternative drugs or reserving supplies of vital medications for patients who need them most.
They caution that the problem is reaching a crisis point.
Several issues are driving this, but good information is scarce because the drug industry and the FDA are rather tight-lipped. There are a few manufacturing plants that have been shut down due to contamination. Drug companies don't make the enormous profits on generics (or even take a loss), so some have simply stopped producing these life-saving drugs, to the detriment of patients who desperately need them to survive.
The NYT has an op-ed piece calling for "more government!" to tackle the shortages. Shocka.
Beyond limited responses, like using the F.D.A.’s discretionary powers to expedite temporary imports of drugs that are sold overseas but not here, there are very few ways to ease the crisis. For the longer term, bipartisan bills in Congress would require drug makers to give the F.D.A. six months’ warning of problems that might disrupt supplies. For that to work, the penalties for noncompliance would need to be stiff.
Other proposals include a national stockpile of critically important drugs, incentives to encourage the manufacture of generic drugs, and broader powers and additional resources for the F.D.A. to head off looming shortages. Some, perhaps many, Congressional Republicans will inevitably oppose an expansion of the F.D.A.’s regulatory authority. This cannot and must not be a fight over ideology. For many Americans, it is a fight for their lives.
Anytime a progressive says "this is not about idealogy" a red flag goes up; in this case, it means they're proposing to ram new government regulations up the hindquarters of private businesses and citizens, or outright nationalize another industry.
The drug shortages are a problem that must be solved. Any ideas?
Quit demonizing big pharmacy?
ReplyDeleteHeh, that's a great start Matt!
ReplyDeleteI've also been thinking...maybe we, as consumers, could begin assuming more risk for drugs. The drug companies are required to spend a bazillion dollars testing new drugs before they go to market; could we scale that back a little, in an effort to cut costs?
Also, we MUST tackle tort reform. I cringe when I see the ambulance-chasing lawyers advertising on TV, offering to get you free money if you had a hiccup while taking this drug or that drug. It's out of control, and creates a horrible environment for developing new drugs.
Yeah, Matt!
ReplyDeleteLady red - you hit that so spot on! I was watching a documentary with the angsty 13 year old, and one of those class-action drug lawsuits came up. It totally started me off on a rant - those hit right at home for me right now because of my surgery complications.
I think at first when the complications started showing up, my doctor was worried I was going to sue. The very thought is silly to me, as it's (1) my fault for not following directions, and (2) due to nothing the doctor did. I also was well informed about the risks, which I still believe are a better trade off than the initial issue was in the first place!
But that's the way people work now - sue whenever things aren't exactly the way you want them, even though it's impossible for anything to be perfectly safe for everyone. Life isn't safe, it was never meant to be. And, truly, for it to be the "safe" that people want, it also means that we have no room to breathe.
I LOVED the part in the second Freakonomics book where they discussed car seats. LOVED it. It's for the children!
People expect things to go exactly as hoped -- but it never works that way. We need to teach people that life is a crap shoot, and you go with where the odds are. Today it seems that if a remedy for 90% of the population were to come along, it would not come out because it might cause harm to the other 10% -- resulting in a law suit. And who loses in the long run?
ReplyDelete