Short Supply? In America?
How Could Life-Preserving Chemotherapy Medications Be Unavailable When Demand Is High?
Why is there a shortage of Carboplatin and Cisplatin -- Chemotherapy staples?
Rationed medicine? Withholding medical care? These are the outcomes of a drastic shortage of key drugs needed for chemotherapy treatments. The shortages are not from insurance companies reluctant to pay for care. They are not from highly-complex, designer drugs which are difficult to produce. These medications are GENERIC. They can be produced by ANY licensed pharmaceutical manufacturer. They are simple to produce in quantity. In fact, a vial of Carboplatin costs approximately $15. That's the problem. The purchase price is so low that manufacturers don't make as much money as they can from maintenance drugs which people have to take regularly for years or high-priced proprietary medicines. The consequence is that cancer patients are DYING from the lack of these simple products.
What's worse is that hospitals with limited supplies are sometimes making decisions about who gets treatment and who does not. Stage IV patients (who are often labeled as "incurable" even though many documented cases of remission happen every day) are denied care because they are statistically less likely to survive long-term. The truth is that these patients are the most likely to suffer degraded health when faced with ANY delay in their medical treatment. Discrimination against patients based upon the stage of their disease is unethical.
Review these familiar sources and what they have published about this shocking reality.
Click the link above to learn more about the manufacturers and the reasons for shortages of Carboplatin directly from the Food and Drug Administration website.
Click the link above to learn more about the manufacturers and the reasons for shortages of Cisplatin directly from the Food and Drug Administration website.
6/5/23 Update
FDA authorizes importation of Cisplatin from China to manage shortage.
Click the link above to learn more about the manufacturers and the reasons for shortages of Methotrexate directly from the Food and Drug Administration website.
"This is out of our hands."
"Private manufacturers can make choices."
"There is nothing we can do."
It's just NOT true!
Legislative Solutions - Propose legislation similar to radio advertising, which requires a certain quantity for public service announcements to be played on-air in order to be eligible for license renewal. If drug manufacturers are required to produce 10% of generic drugs like these which are on the shortage list, are inexpensive to produce, but which do not make money in abundance, in order to stay in business, the situation WILL change.
Legislative Necessities - Prohibit the discrimination against patients based on the stage of their cancer when allocating treatment. It's unethical!
Spread the Word - This isn't just a story about cancer patients. Drug shortages can impact everyone. Raise awareness before the shortages become more prevalent.
Call for Action Where It Counts - When drug manufacturers recognize the demand and the public awareness of choices that harm patients for the sake of profit, pressure can encourage change.
Be an agent of change AND WRITE to anyone who can make a change.
State Senators and Representatives
United States Senators and Representatives
Media Outlet Professionals - Radio, Television, Podcasts, Blogs
Anyone in Drug Manufacturing to Drive Production