Drug Shortage Crisis: What Happens When Generic Manufacturers 'Just Say No'

Abstract

Jenny Morrill, a mother and former arts administrator, has been battling ovarian cancer since 2007. When she recently went to her scheduled chemotherapy treatment, the hospital presented her with both good and bad news. The good news was that she was responding well to the prescribed chemotherapy drug, Doxil. The bad news was that due to nationwide shortages, the hospital had no more Doxil to give her. Ms. Morrill said her “jaw dropped.” In describing her health predicament, Ms. Morrill said, A lot of things can go wrong when you’re in cancer treatment — your white count can go down, you can become too frail to get treatment, the chemo can stop working. One of the things you never consider is that treatment might just not be available. It’s like you’re out in the ocean and the guy on the lifeboat says, “Sorry, they ran out of life rings.”

Keywords: Drug Shortage, Generic Manufacturers, FDA