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This story originally was published by Real Clear Wire By W. Caffey Norman Real Clear Wire Concerning new reports reveal that the drug shortage in the U.S. has reached its highest level since the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists began tracking data. In total, 323 medicines are now in short supply. However, the problem is about to get worse because of government regulations on an entirely different issue. Counterintuitive measures from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are set to effectively ban the domestic production of chemicals that are used in the process of manufacturing vital prescription drugs and vaccines. Shortly...

A new Senate report found that drug shortages in the U.S. are increasing in frequency and duration, due to over-reliance on foreign countries like China and India, which is posing national security concerns. The report from the Democrat-led Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs provided a damning indictment of the U.S. government’s ability to predict drug shortages and address them effectively. It also laid out troubling statistics on the rate of drug shortages.

A few weeks ago, Sheletta Brundidge got a call from her son Andrew’s high school informing her that his daily medication had run out. The 16-year-old has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and takes Adderall to control it. But when Brundidge went to refill it, her pharmacy was out of the drug. “The closest one that was available was over in St. Paul, Minn.,” she tells Yahoo Life. “That’s a whole other city!” Thanks to a continuing nationwide Adderall shortage, there are many families like Sheletta’s who have been scrambling to get their prescriptions filled. So, what can you do...

[H/T combat_boots]Image of boxes of prescription medicine Tamiflu at link Tamiflu fills are at a 10-time high for this time of year, according to GoodRx.com. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images America is facing a shortage of four key medications used for common illnesses in children as virus season comes back in full force.Officials have declared a shortage of first-line antibiotics amoxicillin and Augmentin, which are used to treat bacterial infections. Tamiflu, the most common flu medication in the US, and albuterol, an inhaler for asthma and to open airways in the lungs, are also in short supply, according to the American Society...

[H/T combat_boots]Hospitals are filling up all across America, and there are extremely alarming shortages of some of our most important medications. Health authorities are warning that RSV, the flu and COVID are combining to create a “tripledemic”, and there are simply not enough medications to go around. Personally, I am most concerned about RSV. It is spreading like wildfire from coast to coast, and we are being told that very young children and the elderly are particularly vulnerable. I wrote an entire article about the RSV outbreak earlier this month, and since that time things have gotten even worse. Our...

The vast majority of key ingredients for drugs that many Americans rely on are manufactured abroad, mostly in China. Antibiotics, which turn life-threatening infections into minor nuisances, are considered the single biggest advance in modern medicine. A leading Chinese economist gave voice to the worst fears of U.S. policymakers in March, in a speech to an annual national congress.

These seven drugs are running short in US hospitals. What is the cause of the drug shortage when considering the power of the pharmaceutical industry. How can we get them back to the hospital shelves. Drug shortages are nothing new, In fact, in 2011, there were 251 drug shortages reported by the FDA. 183 of those involved sterile injectable drugs. In 2012, there was less with only 117 new drug shortages, 84 of which involved sterile injectable drugs. Fortunately through early notifications from manufacturers the FDA has been able to prevent 282 shortages last year and numerous times this year...

Dear Patient, Going into the coming year, I have made a difficult but necessary determination that I will no longer be a Medicare provider. This will go into effect as of January 1, 2013. My decision is directly related to the continuing Medicare cuts and cumbersome requirements that Medicare has put into place. Regretfully, it is no longer feasible for us to participate with Medicare.

President Obama's Food and Drug Administration has caused "a public health crisis" -- a prescription drug shortage over the past two years -- by increasing the number of threats issued to raid and close drug manufacturing plants, according to House investigators. "This shortage appears to be a direct result of over-aggressive and excessive regulatory action," House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said in a statement. "These drugs can save lives and keep people who need them living healthy lives. The FDA is failing to ensure the availability of quality products."

Bedford-based company that makes drugs to treat cancer is under scrutiny ... ...Ben Venue Laboratories Inc. announced on Nov. 19 that it had shut down production, a move that exacerbated an already serious shortage of a critical drug to treat ovarian cancer. The company does not know when it will resume production of the drug Doxil, but is working on correcting the problems as quickly as possible, Boehringer Ingelheim Corp. spokesman Jason Kurtz, said Thursday in an email. Boehringer Ingelheim owns Ben Venue. Kurtz said the company was not prepared to address specific questions at this time, but will make...

Here are some highlights from HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius's conference call with reporters Monday morning to talk about President Obama's new executive order, which is intended to provide more medicine to treat deadly diseases: -- Obama "felt the executive order was the most appropriate way to highlight the problem and actually call for a collaborative approach to solve the problem on behalf of patients in this country," Sebelius said. -- "Within the drug shortage program itself, we are planning to effectively double the staff, and we expect that they will be kept busy working on the additional information that we...

President Obama signed his latest executive order this afternoon, saying of the initiative to address a drug shortage that "we've got to go ahead and move forward." He concluded, somewhat awkwardly: "All right. With that, I'm going to sign this bill -- or this executive order -- excuse

Locally the news has been covering the shortage of Cancer Drugs. Patients are haveing life saving surgeries and trestments prosponded or delayed due to this shortage. This situation led me to ask WHY? I have found that Doctors are fighting to get drugs for their patients. Nuclear Medicine (lukemia etc) is having shortages of Isotopes due to the destruction of the Nuclear Industry. Have we missed the complicity of the Obama Admin in this silent genocide. When Gov policies result in a class of people dying it is in fact genocide. Big Pharma held meetings with the Administration and by...

How many of you have not been able to get a drug you needed to properly deliver anesthesia to a patient?” I asked. Every hand in the room went up. “How did that affect your patients?” I asked. “Two of our patients died,” one woman answered. I was speaking to a group of nurse anesthetists, enrolled in a business management program at Marshall University in West Virginia. I wish I could say their experience is unusual. It isn’t. About 90 percent of all the anesthesiologists in the country report they are experiencing a shortage of at least one anesthetic. Drug...

WASHINGTON -- A growing shortage of medications for a host of illnesses -- from cancer to cystic fibrosis to cardiac arrest -- has hospitals scrambling for substitutes to avoid patient harm, and sometimes even delaying treatment. "It's just a matter of time now before we call for a drug that we need to save a patient's life and we find out there isn't any," says Dr. Eric Lavonas of the American College of Emergency Physicians. The problem of scarce supplies or even completely unavailable medications isn't a new one but it's getting markedly worse. The number listed in short supply...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A growing shortage of medications for a host of illnesses - from cancer to cystic fibrosis to cardiac arrest - has hospitals scrambling for substitutes to avoid patient harm, and sometimes even delaying treatment. "It's just a matter of time now before we call for a drug that we need to save a patient's life and we find out there isn't any," says Dr. Eric Lavonas of the American College of Emergency Physicians.

Doctors, hospitals and federal regulators are struggling to cope with an unprecedented surge in drug shortages in the United States that is endangering cancer patients, heart attack victims, accident survivors and a host of other ill people. A record 211 medications became scarce in 2010 — triple the number in 2006 — and at least 89 new shortages have been recorded through the end of March, putting the nation on track for far more scarcities. Some medical centers are rationing drugs — including one urgently needed by leukemia patients — postponing surgeries and other care, and scrambling for substitutes, often...

WASHINGTON -- The number of prescription drugs in short supply has more than tripled since 2005 and shortages are now more frequent than ever, [] Premier Healthcare Alliance -- a performance improvement alliance of more than 2,500 U.S. hospitals -- surveyed 311 pharmacy experts at hospitals and other facilities, such as surgery centers and long-term care facilities, about shortages during a six month period in 2010. The survey found that 89% had experienced shortages that may have caused a medication safety issue or error in patient care. Eight out of 10 times a shortage occurred, the patient's care was delayed...