The Weekly Roundup: Drug Shortages (12.14.18)
The lack of supply chain resilience in pharma is nothing new, and pharmacists and hospitals have been negotiating the problem for years. The task force set up in July that is focused on solving the problem has tossed out a range of solutions, including a national stockpile of critical medications. A retroactive study released last month of 1.3 billion prescription claims and a cohort of 1,114 generic drugs found that low-priced generic drugs were at a higher risk for drug shortages. Manufacturers have been quick to blame lack of regulatory clarity on the FDA. The FDA has said that it is playing with half a deck: It can’t force manufacturers to disclose the reasons for shortages. Chintan Dave, PharmD, PhD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, the study’s author, said: “In the short term, the FDA should recognize that very low generic drug prices might be a factor in subsequent shortages and continue to consider the risk of shortages when taking steps to promote the safety and quality of the generic drug marketplace.” Check out this discussion of the problem and some of its causes.