Obama Issues Executive Order to Reduce Prescription Drug Shortages

In a statement released Monday morning, The White House announced that President Barack Obama is issuing an Executive Order addressing the shortage of prescription drugs in the United States.

“While the Food and Drug Administration has successfully prevented 137 drug shortages since the beginning of 2010,” the statement reads, “drug shortages have been increasing in frequency and severity in recent years and adversely affecting patient care. A small number of drugs in the U.S. experience a shortage in any given year, but the number of reported prescription drug shortages in the United States nearly tripled between 2005 and 2010, going from 61 to 178.”

According to the statement, the Executive Order will direct the FDA and the Department of Justice to take action to reduce and prevent drug shortages, protect consumers, and prevent price gouging.

“Currently, Federal law requires drug manufacturers to notify FDA when production of critical drugs provided by only one manufacturer is being discontinued,” reads the White House statement. “The President’s order directs FDA to broaden reporting of potential shortages of certain prescription drugs. Additionally, the Executive Order requires FDA to expand its current efforts to expedite review of new manufacturing sites, drug suppliers, and manufacturing changes to help prevent shortages.”

In addition, The White House states, the Executive Order directs the FDA and the Department of Justice to examine whether secondary drug wholesalers are hoarding medications or raising prices to gouge consumers.

The White House reports that the leading reasons for shortages were problems at the manufacturing facility (43%), delays in manufacturing or shipping (15%) and active pharmaceutical ingredient shortages (10%).

According to a report by WebMD in February, 2011, the most common drugs in short supply are “sterile injectibles” including anesthesia and pain medications, antibiotics and cancer chemotherapy drugs.

“At least six people have died as a result of the prescription drug shortage, according to Michael R. Cohen, ScD, RPh, president of The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), which published a survey of 1,800 health care professionals last fall in which one in four respondents reported adverse events as a result of the shortage,” the WebMD article reported.

In addition to deaths, the article stated, adverse events due to dosing errors related to replacement drugs being used during times of shortage included patients having an awareness of the operation during surgical procedures. Treatments at cancer centers have also been delayed because of drug supply shortages, the article reported.


People also view

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *