This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/02/opinion/drug-shortage.html
The article has changed 6 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 4 | Version 5 |
|---|---|
| How to Fix the National Drug Shortage | How to Fix the National Drug Shortage |
| (1 day later) | |
| The Times reported last month that drug shortages in the United States are approaching record levels, with thousands of patients facing delays in getting cancer treatments, a drug that reverses lead poisoning, a sterile fluid needed to stop the heart for bypass surgery and antibiotics for strep throat, among many other medicines. One doctor described the shortages as a national health emergency. | The Times reported last month that drug shortages in the United States are approaching record levels, with thousands of patients facing delays in getting cancer treatments, a drug that reverses lead poisoning, a sterile fluid needed to stop the heart for bypass surgery and antibiotics for strep throat, among many other medicines. One doctor described the shortages as a national health emergency. |
| In a healthy free market, such shortages would be few and fleeting if they occurred at all. The profit motive would induce existing suppliers to ramp up production and new ones to enter. Instead, the Food and Drug Administration lists 137 drugs that are “currently in shortage.” That shows that the market for medicine needs some kind of medicine itself. | In a healthy free market, such shortages would be few and fleeting if they occurred at all. The profit motive would induce existing suppliers to ramp up production and new ones to enter. Instead, the Food and Drug Administration lists 137 drugs that are “currently in shortage.” That shows that the market for medicine needs some kind of medicine itself. |
| What exactly is going wrong? A key part of the problem is low prices — specifically, low prices paid to manufacturers of many generic drugs and biosimilars. Their profit margins are so thin that it doesn’t make sense for them to invest in production. Some are shutting down. | What exactly is going wrong? A key part of the problem is low prices — specifically, low prices paid to manufacturers of many generic drugs and biosimilars. Their profit margins are so thin that it doesn’t make sense for them to invest in production. Some are shutting down. |
| We’re so accustomed to the problem of high drug prices that it’s hard to imagine that low prices are causing trouble, but they are. According to the Times story, Anthony Sardella, a business research adviser at Washington University in St. Louis, told a House hearing last month that generic drug prices had fallen by about 50 percent since 2016. “But there is a high cost to low prices,” Sardella said. | We’re so accustomed to the problem of high drug prices that it’s hard to imagine that low prices are causing trouble, but they are. According to the Times story, Anthony Sardella, a business research adviser at Washington University in St. Louis, told a House hearing last month that generic drug prices had fallen by about 50 percent since 2016. “But there is a high cost to low prices,” Sardella said. |
| “If I offered you the chance to produce a drug and guaranteed you would lose money on every pill you made, it is unlikely you would go into that business,” Dr. Robert Califf, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said at a congressional hearing last month. And if you’re already in the business, he said, “you might also skimp on your quality systems and manufacturing.” | |
| Califf added, “So we have got to fix the core economics if we are going to get the situation fixed.” Other solutions, such as better data sharing, he said, are just plugging holes. |