Boxes of Wegovy made by Novo Nordisk are seen at a pharmacy in London, Britain March 8, 2024.
Hollie Adams | Reuters
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Good afternoon! Drug shortages within the U.S. are at a record high, leaving countless patients in limbo.
A complete of 323 drugs were in shortage in the primary quarter of this 12 months, up from the previous high of 320 in 2014, in accordance with data published last week by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists and the University of Utah Drug Information Service. That is probably the most medicines for the reason that groups began tracking shortages in 2001.
So, which drugs do the shortfalls affect?
Supplies are low for every thing from lower doses of Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster weight reduction drug Wegovy, certain doses of Eli Lilly’s popular diabetes injection and weight reduction counterpart Zepbound, to key cancer treatments and customary antibiotics. A lot of them are generic medications, which make up a majority of Americans’ prescriptions.
“All drug classes are vulnerable to shortages,” Paul Abramowitz, CEO of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, or ASHP, wrote in a blog post on Thursday.
But he said “a few of the most worrying shortages involve generic sterile injectable medications, including cancer chemotherapy drugs and emergency medications stored in hospital crash carts and procedural areas.” Ongoing scarcity of ADHD medications “also remain a serious challenge for clinicians and patients,” Abramowitz added.
The drug shortage database maintained by the 2 organizations is predicated on voluntary reports from practitioners, patients and others. The figures are confirmed with drugmakers. This list often includes more drugs than the number the Food and Drug Administration considers to be in shortage.
It’s unclear what number of patients are impacted by the present drug shortages. But the common shortage from 2016 to 2020 affected no less than half 1,000,000 patients, a lot of whom are older adults, in accordance with an evaluation the Department of Health and Human Services shared with Congress in May.
The shortages can create serious problems.
Margot Wood, an Oregon-based creator of the book Fresh, said intermittent shortages of ADHD medications have disrupted her day by day life for roughly a 12 months and a half. Wood said she will generally function without the drugs, but noted that each task is “far more complicated and difficult” and “takes thrice as long” to do.
“I would like them not only for work, but additionally for my relationships, being a mom, in my hobbies and things and just maintaining with my day-to-day life,” Wood told CNBC.
While patients in some states can scour different pharmacies for the medication they need, Wood said there’s not much she will do in Oregon. That is because Oregon considers ADHD medications controlled substances, meaning Wood can only fill her prescription at her designated pharmacy.
When her medication does return in stock, Wood said she often rations her supply to arrange for potential shortages in the long run. She added it’s “frustrating” that the explanation behind the shortages is not clear to patients and even some pharmacists.
JB Reed | Bloomberg | Getty Images
So, what exactly is driving drug shortages? And the way can the difficulty be fixed?
Around 60% of drug manufacturers didn’t disclose the aspects behind the scarcity of medicines, in accordance with the brand new data from ASHP and the University of Utah Drug Information Service.
Some drugmakers said demand has outstripped supply, which has been the case with buzzy weight reduction and diabetes medications. Others said manufacturing and quality problems, reminiscent of supply chain gaps, played a job.
However the Biden administration has suggested a deeper issue may cause shortages, particularly of generic drugs.
In February, the Federal Trade Commission and HHS said they’re examining the role that drug wholesalers and firms that purchase medicines for U.S. health-care providers play in those shortages. The agencies will determine whether those middlemen have misused their market power to chop the costs of generic drugs to the purpose that manufacturers cannot profit and should stop production, and rival suppliers are discouraged from competing within the generic drug market.
The Biden administration has taken other steps to tackle drug shortages. Last week, HHS outlined policy recommendations to assist prevent supply deficiencies and mitigate vulnerabilities.
That features collaborations with drugmakers and hospitals that aim to make the drug market more transparent and encourage corporations to take a position in resilient and diverse drug supply chains.
Abramowitz on Thursday said a few of the recommendations align with those of ASHP, however the organization has “serious concerns” about certain parts of the plan. He pointed to a proposal that might penalize hospitals that lack the resources to comply with the recommendations.
“Much work stays to be done on the federal level to repair the basis causes of drug shortages,” Abramowitz wrote.
Be happy to send any suggestions, suggestions, story ideas and data to Annika at annikakim.constantino@nbcuni.com.
Latest in health-care technology
UnitedHealth reveals financial impact of Change Healthcare cyberattack
The company logo of the UnitedHealth Group appears on the side of one in every of their office buildings in Santa Ana, California, U.S., April 13, 2020.
Mike Blake | Reuters
All eyes were on UnitedHealth Group on Tuesday morning as the corporate reported first-quarter results that gave investors a window into the associated fee of the Change Healthcare cyberattack.
UnitedHealth said its earnings took a 74 cents per share hit from the breach in the primary quarter, and it expects the full-year impact to be between $1.15 and $1.35 per share.
“The core story at UnitedHealth Group stays our colleagues delivering improved experiences for the people we serve and driving balanced growth even while swiftly and effectively addressing the attack on Change Healthcare,” UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty said in a release.
UnitedHealth, which owns Change Healthcare, discovered that a cyber threat actor had breached a part of the unit’s information technology systems in February. The corporate needed to shut off the affected systems, temporarily leaving many doctors and not using a method to fill prescriptions or receives a commission for his or her services. Many are still contending with the fallout.
Shares of UnitedHealth were up greater than 5% as of 11 a.m. ET on Tuesday.
UnitedHealth’s Optum acquired Change Healthcare for $13 billion in 2022. The merger was controversial, as groups just like the American Medical Association claimed the union could stifle competition. The Justice Department sued to dam the acquisition that 12 months, however the deal eventually went through.
In the corporate’s quarterly call with investors Tuesday, Witty said UnitedHealth’s ownership of Change Healthcare is “necessary for the country.” He said the attack likely would have happened either way, but when UnitedHealth didn’t own the corporate, Change Healthcare wouldn’t have had the resources or support crucial to bring its systems back online.
“We’ll bring it back much stronger than it was before,” Witty said.
UnitedHealth CFO John Rex said throughout the call that the corporate’s insurance unit, UnitedHealthcare, is “just about back to normal by way of claim submission activity” within the wake of the cyberattack. He said claims are flowing as expected.
It remains to be not clear exactly how the attack happened, or what data was compromised.
Be happy to send any suggestions, suggestions, story ideas and data to Ashley at ashley.capoot@nbcuni.com.