How drug shortage V United States approaching record numbers, many patients are postponing treatment for cancer, as well as other life-threatening conditions. There are so many flaws that now they have attracted his attention. White House and his Congress. Politicians and business representatives study the root causes of the instability of the generic market medicineswhich is approximately 90% of domestic formulations.

Government Biden put together a team to find long-term solutions to support the drug supply chain at a time when the United States remains heavily dependent on drugs and their ingredients from India and China.

In recent weeks, generic drug makers, supply chain experts and patient advocates have come before Congress to discuss issues such as the lack of generic forms of chemotherapy to treat cancer lungs, breast, bladder and ovaries is of increasing concern.

Ryan Dewars managed to beat pancreatic cancer in 2021, but in late 2021, an MRI showed that cancer cells had developed in his liver. Dewars, a 39-year-old father of two, was hoping to get his last four doses of chemotherapy in April. The doctor then broke the heartbreaking news: Unfortunately, others took precedence in treatment. “I saw a light at the end of the tunnel,” he says from his home in Iowa. “It was much worse to get this close, and then it happened.”

private action

Laura Bray founded a non-profit organization called Angels of Change, which acts as a link between patients, healthcare systems, and pharmaceutical companies to “micro-delivery,” as she calls it, hard-to-find drugs.

“Do we have the determination and sense of urgency to solve the problem?” asks Bray, who briefs the White House and Congress. “It’s possible. It can be done. It’s happened in other supply chains as well. But we need to focus on it, and we need to be willing to end it, not mitigate it.”

The US is still heavily dependent on recipes and ingredients from India and China.

In Dewars’ case, Bray contacted the manufacturer of cisplatin, the chemotherapy drug he needed, and arranged for a few days’ delivery for him and other patients to the hospital where he was being treated. But others, in many states across the country, have not been so fortunate, as they have experienced appalling gaps between the doses required for their treatment.

“Need for Health”

“In my opinion, this is a public health emergency,” said Dr. Amanda Fader, professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and president of the Gynecological Oncology Society, “due to the wide range of people it affects and the amount of chemotherapy drugs. products that are not currently in stock.

The American Cancer Society warned last week that treatment delays caused by drug shortages could have serious consequences for patients.

According to FDA spokesman James McKinney, the White House team dealing with the broader issue of long-term drug supply issues includes national security, economic and health advisers. Stakeholders are discussing possible measures such as tax breaks for generic manufacturers.

When Ms. Bray met with White House staffers in late April, she said she recommended creating an exchange to get drugs where they are needed most and increase the production of small batches of drugs. “I think we are dealing with a market problem and that is why we need solutions at the market level,” he said.