Reports of shortages of critically needed medications are alarmingly common.
The United States has recently been dealing with a number of major shortages, ranging from tablets to treat ADHD and severe pain to injectable therapies for syphilis and other malignancies. And this was before a U.S. Senate report revealed that towards the end of 2022, the number of active shortages peaked at 295.
The causes might range from poor quality control at production facilities to rising demand, which has occasionally made it difficult to get medications used for weight loss.
But resolving the issue is not simple. The majority of pharmaceutical active components are produced in China, and increasing US production is not as simple as turning a switch.
Numerous medications that are in short supply are generics produced in India, where authorities frequently uncover significant production flaws.
So what do you do? Marta Wosiska, a senior scholar in economic research at The Brookings Institution, has three suggestions to address shortages of generic sterile injectable medications in particular. She has these suggestions in collaboration with a colleague.
They advocate for the American government to offer incentives for facility upgrades and the development of a buffer inventory.
However, they also contend that hospital purchasing needs to be modernized. We spoke about the options; our exchange has been gently modified.
Drug shortages have been a topic of my intermittent writing for years, yet the issue remains.
It seems considerably worse right now. Undoubtedly, something needs to alter. But what specifically about our current policies have been lacking?
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