Hospitals fight drug scarcity, fear patients harmed [much worse since Obamacare was passed]

Reuters ^ | June 2, 2012 | Anna Yukhananov

[grundle]

A few hundred medicines make the list of drugs in short supply: anesthetics, drugs for nausea and nutrition, infection treatments and diarrhea pills. A separate list has scarce cancer drugs for leukemia or breast cancer.

The growing scarcity of sterile, injectable drugs is one of the biggest issues confronting hospitals across the country, and will be a key issue at the annual American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago this weekend.

Health officials blame the shortages on industry consolidation that has left only a handful of generic manufacturers of these drugs, even as the number of drugs going off patent is growing. Some drugmakers have been plagued by manufacturing problems that have shut down multiple plants or production lines, while others have stopped producing a treatment when profit margins erode too far.

Some medicines have been periodically short in the past, doctors and pharmacists say, but the number of drug shortages has escalated in recent years, jumping from 56 in 2006 to 250 last year, according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration figures.

...pharmacies around the country are counting pills, begging neighboring hospitals for extra supplies and scouring the Internet for news of additional supply disruptions.

When rumors surface of an impending shortage, some pharmacies rush to buy up more than they need, likely leading to bigger shortages, analysts and other pharmacists said. essing shortage-related problems.

"Out of all the (21) years I have been practicing, these drug shortages have been one of the biggest challenges," she said.

This month, a website for U.S. oncologists, MDLinx, surveyed 200 doctors and found more than 90 percent of them have experienced shortages of key cancer drugs.

[Terry Mross]

The drug companies were bought off by obama. I predict you won’t be able to buy drugs from Canada within a year if obamacare is ruled constitutional by the SC AND obama is re-elected. I also predict an end to generic drugs.

[Shady]

Death panels being legitimized. We can’t afford for you to have that aspirin.

[Gay State Conservative]

One thing we can be sure of...regardless of what OsamaObamaCare calls for neither Osama Obama himself, members of his family,friends nor trust funded campaign contributors will ever experience a shortage of medicines or have to wait so much as 5 minutes for *any* medical or surgical treatment.OTOH,we common folk will have to wait months (if we're lucky) for heart surgery,cancer treatment,hip replacements,cardiac pacemakers,etc just like “ordinary” folks do in Canada and Britain.

[omega4412]

Also involved, outsourcing production of drugs and chemical intermediates for drugs to China.

[PGR88]

I’m not in the drugs business, but I would bet you $100 that the drugs most in short supply are also those the most highly regulated and almost exclusively paid for by the US Govt.

[bgill]

If you haven’t already, get ahead of your prescriptions while you can and stock up on general medicine cabinet items.

[Jim Robinson]

Ain’t socialism grand.

[Seaplaner]

One of the perpetually observable consequences of Marxism/socialism is that of instantaneous and continual and continuous shortages.

For example, Obamacare [sic] has already led to shortages of pharmaceuticals (including the one that I take each day), AND...

My monthly prescription cost has doubled.

I can live with the cost increase, but the shortages are scary.

It is sadly comical that Dems never seem to figure out that the hostile takeover of medicine (by uncaring and ignorant fools) affects THEM TOO!

.