FDA needs teeth to avert drug shortages

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FDA needs teeth to avert drug shortages

The number of medications in short supply has been rising, including some needed

daily in hospitals, and regulators lack the tools to address the problem. One

Senate bill in the works could help.

April 19, 2011| Hiltzik

It didn't used to be in Sandy Binder's job description to be a drug sleuth.

As director of oncology community practices at UCLA, she didn't have to spend

two hours a day checking on the supply of crucial cancer drugs at her six

clinics and dickering with suppliers to make sure her doctors could get their

hands on what their patients needed, even if at a markup that tripled the normal

cost.

Those were the old days, before the crisis of drug shortages in the United

States spiraled out of control.

In 2004, the authoritative drug information service of the University of Utah

recorded critical shortages for 58 drugs. Last year the number of new shortages

reached 211, and this year reports of new shortages are arriving at a pace of

more than one a day. So stand by for a record-breaking year, the service's

director, Fox, told me...

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/apr/19/business/la-fi-hiltzik-20110419