US Drug Shortages are Forcing ‘Impossible Choices’ For Americans, Experts Tell Senate Committee

CNN
 — 
As director of the Lymphoma Clinical Research program at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Dr. Jason Westin regularly witnesses the power of lifesaving cancer drugs. But because generic cancer drugs are often in shortage in the United States, he says, he and his patients have been put in a terrible position.

“The absence of a generic and cheap drug like fludarabine literally can be the difference between life and death,” Westin told members of the US Senate Committee on Finance at a hearing Tuesday.

The committee has been investigating a record shortage of drugs, a problem that’s been going on for decades and is unique to the United States, studies show. Several senators said they’d heard from constituents who are sick or who have patients hurt by these shortages. Sen. Marsha Blackburn noted that the medical center at Vanderbilt in Nashville has had to dedicate more than 100 staff members to managing and mitigating disruptions caused by shortages.

A woman walks past a CVS Pharmacy in Washington, DC, on November 2, 2022.
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“This is something that is becoming all too common with our providers,” the Tennessee Republican said Tuesday.

The majority of the nearly 200 ongoing shortages – 84% – don’t involve new or novel drugs but rather generics that have been on the market for decades, said Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho. Generics make up 9 of every 10 prescriptions filled in the US, so shortages have a big impact on the country’s health.

“These shortages can inflict drastic harm on massive populations of Americans,” Crapo said. “The average shortage affects at least half a million consumers, forcing them to scramble for viable alternatives or they’ll forgo treatment entirely.”

Many of these generics treat cancer. Fludarabine, a reliable drug used as a part of CAR T-cell therapy, is in shortage now, according to the US Food and Drug Administration. As with a lot of generic drugs used to treat cancer, it has been on and off the list for a few years.

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