drug shortage ?

[Trekfan]

I am watching the news and they are talking about there being a drug shortage with lot of drugs . how can this happen ? have any of you not been able to get or find drugs ?

[ZooMommyRN, ADN, RN]

We just got memos about levaquin IV 750mg dosage being short, haven't run out yet but with winter coming that's a popular one

[ORoxyO]

Screw the patients........It's ALL about the money.......:flmngmd:

It's easy to rip apart an industry that you do not know that much about. Drug companies are companies. Companies need money to survive. Making drugs is very expensive, and research is even more expensive. The money generated from drugs sold pays for the hundreds of drugs that do not make it to market. Those lost drugs are extremely expensive as well and a huge loss to the company. While I whole-heartedly agree that the advertising is ridiculous as far as money spent and filling people with ideas their doctors should be telling them, you can't always blame the drug company for needing to make a profit. CEOs etc of drug companies deserve to earn a salary just like you do. Would you work for free? No. then why should they?

Yes, companies stop producing drugs when there is not longer a profit. Why would any company make a product that does not bring in money? They would go broke, and not be able to make new drugs. That's where generics are nice. No one forces them to make durgs and save lives, but they do. And they need to turn a profit in able to do it. Jsut like hospitals. Does anyone blame hospitals for charging for care? No. They need to charge current patients so that they can continue to treat future patients.

As a former chemist and drug maker, I will point out another thing people don't realize. Many starting materials for drugs, intermediates, and reagents come from other countries. Many times we waited months to a year to be able to have these chemicals in our labs/manufactuing plants. If the chemical made does not meet our strict standards, there is a natural disaster, the company goes out of business, the reactions don't go well, there is an unseen impurity/byproduct, their starting materials are late, FDA makes theri regualtion tighter, or the products have shipping issues due to safety, or importing problems, these things can delay the making of dugs by a very very long time. Drugs are not something you can just mix up a batch of quickly. It is a defined process that takes time. If material are not available, it sets everything back. It is a very complex situation.

Some other coutries do not have the above problems becuase their laws and requirements are not as strict. Their labs do not have the safety requirements we have, and the drugs can be less researched and more impure. Same drug, more impurities. Ew. I'm not saying at all that politics do not play a role, of course they do and we pay for that. But its just another side to it.

I know I will get flamed for this but I just hate when people rip apart an industry when they don't know all of the perspectives. I'm not saying by any means that the drug industry is perfect. But just puting it out there that they are a business like any other, and they need to make money. After all, they could be producing plastic Justin Bieber dolls that don't help anyone.

[Nursetastic]

Our latest issues with shortages are for calcium gluconate and labetalol. It's been a huge pain in the derrier.

[blondy2061h, MSN, RN]

Apparently no IV Acyclovir either...which sucks b/c we've had a few immunocompromised pts with raging herpes infections recently, and the oral dosing just wasn't cutting it.

We've also switched from IV pepcid to IV Zantac...I'm assuming that's a supply issue as well.

I saw that on the list, but we haven't had a problem getting IV Acyclovir yet.

[blondy2061h, MSN, RN]

Our latest issues with shortages are for calcium gluconate and labetalol. It's been a huge pain in the derrier.

We've been short on calcium chloride. Guess we better tell everyone to drink more milk.

[madwife2002, BSN, RN]

This is just unreal I cannot believe we are running out of drugs-what on earth is going on!

[heron, ASN, RN]

Maybe this is soaking up the excess capacity ... these prescription drugs are being made by someone.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=prescription-drug-deaths

I am reminded of a time during the seventies when drug company records showed many many times more amphetamines produced and sold than could be accounted for by legitimate prescriptions. Quite a scandal at the time.

[ZippyGBR, BSN, RN]

Do Canada, the UK, or other countries with single-payer health systems have similar problems with drug shortages?

not generally our occasional shortages are usually down to production or raw material issues .

[SkylerW]

I know Mucomyst is currently on back order.

[tewdles, RN]

This is not a single payer issue as much as it is a capitalism issue. It is a good argument for single payer health systems because it illustrates the obvious point that capitalism is not interested in the welfare of the consumer. We cannot expect corporations to give 2 sniffs about how their product and profit management techniques impact us. As long as we have a government that embraces the notion that corporations are people, that their ability to make profit must be protected at all costs, and that working class America is going to carry ALL of the burden that accompanies greed, there will be no relief from this type of harm.

No one is asking pharmaceutical companies to make something for nothing. I, as a nurse and as a patient, expect that they will charge adequately for the drugs to cover their expenses and make some $$ to boot. Last I knew, TEVA was not GIVING AWAY any 5FU. I know that it costs money for compazine...I use it regularly...my insurance pays for most of it and I pay a nice co-pay. Probably the problem is that they are not going to break profit margin records with production of generics, they make just a reasonable profit. Big Pharma adds new drugs all the time, I say it is unethical to manipulate the market by dc'ing production of a generic which FORCES doctors and patients to make other choices, for reasons other than best health outcome for the patient. It is win/win for the pharma manufacturer and very possibly lose/lose for the patient...and for our health care system as it then absorbs our soaring costs.

I have read this entire thread. I have probably been the most critical of big pharma on this issue. Perhaps I have ripped apart the industry...of course...I feel sort of like they are trying to kill me.