Shortage of drug threatens isle cancer patients [and nationwide]

Hawaiian Star-Advertiser ^ | Feb 11, 2012 | Star-Advertiser reporter Kristen Consillio and reporter Gardiner Harris contributed to this report.

[alancarp]

A national drug shortage is threatening to disrupt cancer therapy for 24-year-old Tammie Miura and at least 100 Hawaii patients who use the medicine as a main source of treatment.

Hospital officials nationwide are fearful that the drug, methotrexate — a crucial medicine in the treatment of childhood cancers — will be exhausted within the next two weeks after a major supplier stopped producing it in November. Hawaii has not yet seen a shortage because local hospitals typically stock up on the drug, though medical providers and patients are worried that could soon change. [snip]

[alancarp]

This hits home for me... my teenage son is scheduled to get his next dose of this stuff in six weeks... if there's any left.

As noted, this is not a problem limited to Hawaii - it is a nationwide shortage, and news reports are now hitting the air. As you can see from the article, though, it's a problem that's been coming over the past 4 months.

[Chickensoup]

Interesting since the FDA determins quantity of meds made these days.

[SaraJohnson]

God bless your son. I pray this shortage consequence of Obamacare does not touch him as he heals from cancer.

[alancarp]

Thank you - I am hopeful that we’ll have completed his treatments by the time that obamanation gets fully implemented... assuming all other avenues to stymie that agenda fail.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

"...the methotrexate shortage began in December when production declined. That drop resulted primarily from Ben Venue Laboratories Inc. temporarily closing its factory in Bedford, Ohio, in November after federal inspectors said the company had not been properly maintaining equipment or promptly addressing defective product batches and sterility problems.

Besides making methotrexate, the factory was the sole source for Johnson & Johnson's Doxil, a drug widely used for breast and ovarian cancer that's not been available for new patients for months.

Another foreign-owned generic manufacturer struggling to understand how the FDA works. Boehringer Ingelheim owns them.

I would've guessed it was related to a lawsuit.

Just your government doing it's thing.

Their take on events is here.

Funny how that got approved even though they need major construction to get in compliance.