Drug and Chemical Shortages

The following was actually announced a few days ago:

ReadyMom wrote:... a combination of antimalarial medication and antibiotics could be a vital weapon in the battle against coronavirus.

The work by researchers at IHU-Méditerranée Infection in Marseille has garnered global attention, notably from President Trump. Researchers prescribed the antimalarial hydroxychloroquine and the antibiotic azithromycin to patients earlier this month,...

And so were these two:
https://www.ashp.org/Drug-Shortages/Current-Shortages/Drug-Shortage-Detail.aspx?id=646

Estimated Resupply Dates
Amneal has hydroxychloroquine 200 mg tablets in 100 count on allocation.
Major has hydroxychloroquine 200 mg tablets in 50 count and 100 count available in limited supply.
Mylan has hydroxychloroquine 200 mg tablets in 100 count on back order and the company cannot estimate a release date.

https://www.ashp.org/Drug-Shortages/Current-Shortages/Drug-Shortage-Detail.aspx?id=640

Estimated Resupply Dates
Rising has chloroquine phosphate 250 mg tablets on back order and the company estimates a release date of mid-April 2020.
Sun Pharma has chloroquine phosphate 250 mg tablets on back order and the company cannot estimate a release date.

The US is running low on more than a dozen drugs that hospitals need to treat critically ill coronavirus patients
https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-drugs-at-risk-of-shortage-sedatives-chloroquine-2020-4

As hospitals around the US grapple with a rising number of coronavirus patients falling critically ill, the country has started running low on the drugs used to treat those patients.

Premier, which works with hospitals around the US in part by helping them purchase medications, on Tuesday pulled together a list of drugs at risk of shortages. Some of the treatments are officially in shortage, according to the US Food and Drug Administration. Others are seeing demand skyrocket, making it difficult for hospitals to get their orders filled. ---CONTINUED---

Amid rush to secure ventilators, doctors warn of shortage of crucial drugs
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-covid-19-ventilators-shortage-drugs-propofol-morphine-lorazepam-fentanyl/


Amid rush to secure ventilators, doctors warn of shortage of crucial drugs

By Melissa Quinn

April 9, 2020 / 6:03 AM / CBS News

Washington — With federal and state officials rushing to secure ventilators for patients battling COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, doctors and pharmacists are warning that the supply of drugs needed to place patients on those ventilators is also dwindling. ---CONTINUED---

The drug shortage list includes Azithromycin, and both hydroxychloroquine and it's cousin chloroquine phosphate. So many medical personnel and others with connections have been taking them, that they have been in short supply ever since Trump mentioned them in one of his briefings. It has become apparent that doctors, when dealing with their own lives trust Trump more than they trust the CDC and WHO.

And for good reason.

Multiple medical studies, purported to have shown these drugs to be ineffective and dangerous all have one thing in common. When they were looked at closely, by outsiders, it was discovered the evidence did not exist. They were faked.

Meanwhile, other drugs are in short supply, namely antibiotics, anti-psychotics, and a couple drugs used in surgical and veterinary medicine.

National drug shortages at a 10 year high, there are 301 active drug shortages in the U.S., including cancer drugs:

https://www.nj.com/healthfit/2023/05/cant-get-your-medicine-an-inside-look-at-the-massive-drug-shortages-in-nj-and-beyond.html?outputType=amp

rick1 wrote:National drug shortages at a 10 year high, there are 301 active drug shortages in the U.S., including cancer drugs:

https://www.nj.com/healthfit/2023/05/cant-get-your-medicine-an-inside-look-at-the-massive-drug-shortages-in-nj-and-beyond.html?outputType=amp

I scan the list of shortages, at least every month, and have for years. It is impossible to know exactly how many, or what impact the shortage is having, since some drugs on that list are available, but only from certain manufactures. They got reported as short, when a manufacture shut down a line, but other companies stepped in to take up the slack. That said, I suspect the number IS at an all time high, and somewhere over 200.

As for the impact, it takes some searching and reading, but there are bulletins put out for every drug on that list, detailing how to manage however much of the drug is still available, and sometimes, what substitutes may be available.

Unless we (US and Europe) get serious about mining, drilling and manufacturing everything we need, we will have shortages of various things, including drugs, until Jesus comes back. (I hope that is real soon.)

It isn't just drugs. While my sister was undergoing chemo, the treatment center was short of gauze and other wound care covering alternatives. They were using the bandaging tape without the cotton balls or gauze underneath.

Cinnamon wrote:It isn't just drugs. While my sister was undergoing chemo, the treatment center was short of gauze and other wound care covering alternatives. They were using the bandaging tape without the cotton balls or gauze underneath.

Even though you didn't say it, I assume this was recently, but I am wondering where this treatment center is. A lot of these (non drug) shortages seem to be regional.

I will be trying to check my local resources.