Obama Asks FDA To Reduce Drug Shortages

According to a survey by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, more than half of hospitals and medical centers said last year that drug shortages compromised patient care. Plus, the shortages drove up costs by direct purchases from resellers. Considering the situation, President Barack Obama has urged the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to take action and reduce drug shortages.

Barack Obama explains that solving the drug shortages problem will make for a boost in health care quality. Plus, the President explains that “This is one of those slow-rolling problems that could end up resulting in disaster for patients and health-care facilities all across the country”.

Obama is currently trying to convince the Congress to pass a legislation that would make it mandatory for drugmakers to report the shortages. At the same time, the President asked the Justice Department to look into potentially illegal mark-ups by resellers. Obama also asked the FDA and the Justice Department to take part in a joint investigation to “examine whether potential shortages have led to illegal price gouging or stockpiling of life-saving medications”.

A report by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices looked at the gray market activities linked with drug shortages and found out that 56 percent of 549 hospital purchasing agents and pharmacists reported receiving daily solicitations from vendors. 52 percent said they actually had to buy drugs from gray market vendors in the past two years.

FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said that the regulator plans to double the size of its office dealing with shortages, from five people to 11.

Devon Herrick, senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis, believes that Obama’s new plan won’t change the situation. Herrick says that “firms have little incentive to ramp up production”, since Medicare and Medicaid limit how fast the price of a drug can rise.

All in all, Obama is focusing on a major problem. Drug shortages have almost tripled to 178 in 2010 from 61 in 2005. FDA showed that sterile injections account for 80 percent of the 127 shortages studied, out of which 28 percent were cancer drugs.

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