Posted on 08/29/2011 7:39:56 AM PDT by Marty62
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 all accounts received a deal on medications. ............................... Obamacare Creates Windfall for Drug Companies
http://www.foodconsumer.org/newsite/Non-food/Government/obamacare_creates_windfall_for_drug_companies_0404100705.html
ObamaCare: A sweetheart deal for the drug companies
http://www.freedomworks.org/blog/mclemente/the-white-houses-deal-with-the-devil
Why Pharma Wants ObamaCare http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/19/pharmaceuticals-obamacare-reform-business-healthcare-washington.html
Cancer Drug Shortages Getting Worse, FDA Says Experts note patient safety at risk in some cases
Read More http://www.ivillage.com/cancer-drug-shortages-getting-worse-fda-says/4-a-376132#ixzz1WQZc1Kza
Price-gougers hike costs of vital drugs during shortage 'Gray market' suppliers offer medications at an average 650 percent mark-up, survey shows http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44167386/ns/health-health_care/t/price-gougers-hike-costs-vital-drugs-during-shortage/
ObamaCare’s ‘Sweetheart Deal’ for PhRMA http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/obamacares-sweetheart-deal-for-phrma/
******** If You Thought Obamacare Would Be A Big Subsidy To Pharmaceuticals, Just Watch What's About To Happen In China
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/if-you-though-obamacare-would-be-a-big-subsidy-to-pharmaceuticals-just-watch-whats-about-to-happen-in-china-2010-3#ixzz1WQcasGRi
Was doing some research on this topic, seems biggest issue is approximately 80% on the chemicals to manufacture the drugs are imported to this country and many sources shutdown due to ‘quality’ issues.
A good journalist getting that on the air and out to potential voters could really sink Oblunder. Too bad we don’t have ...
Exactly. The FDA would never accept LACK of drug treatment as a cause of death.
This is no joke. My wife was supposed to start on Chemo treatment today, and they told us they did not have that kind ready, so they’re going to have her take some pill instead. I’m so upset. :(
Death panels work in many ways....how screwed are us who are “senior citizens!”
I asked Pan_Yan that question, before the 2008 election. At the time he said that if the US fell, it would usher in a new period similar to the Dark Ages.
Isn’t it interesting that the msm is so invested in the Dumocrats that they would stand by while Americans suffer and say nothing.
I am at a loss to explain it. What could they possibly have to gain?
This year (and into 2012) will see the bottom fall out for the brand manufacturers with so many blockbusters coming off patent. The biggest drug in the history of the industry, Pfizer's LIPITOR will be off patent in November. This brand alone does about 12 BILLION dollars worldwide/year.
Patents are awarded when the drug company registers the molecule, and run for 20 years; however, it usually takes about 8 years from registry to marketing approval. It also takes about 500-800 million dollars to bring the molecule to the FDA for approval, and not all get approved, as you know.
Please click here for more info.
She will be in my prayers. It is for people like her that this needs to be fully discussed.
My source said docs are fighting to get C drugs. What a state of affairs.
Drug Shortage Crisis Grows
Posted By Tait Trussell On August 24, 2011 @ 12:05 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | No Comments
We face a crisis of drug shortages. Some hospital patients now have to take medications that aren’t effective. For others, treatment is dangerously delayed. Life-saving or life-prolonging medicines are increasingly in short supply for the one in ten Americans hospitalized on any particular day.
The Obama Administration is partly to blame. The crisis may worsen as the ObamaCare bureaucracy controls all aspects of health care in America.
A new survey released by the American Hospital Association (AHA) with responses from 820 facilities across the country reveals “serious consequences for patient care and access to vital therapies.”
With increasing frequency of drug shortages, the AHA survey revealed that “almost 100 percent of hospitals reported a shortage in the last six months and nearly half of the hospitals reported 21 or more drug shortages.”
Some hospitals were able to find alternative sources for drugs in short supply. But:
• Hospitals report they have delayed treatment (82 percent of the time) and more than half were not always able to give patients the prescribed treatment.
• Patients got a less effective drug (69 percent of the time).
• Hospitals experienced drug
shortages across all treatment categories.
• Most hospitals rarely or never received advance notification of drug shortages (77 percent) or were not informed about the cause of the shortage (67 percent).
• The majority of all hospitals reported increased drug costs resulting from the shortages.
• Most hospitals are being forced to buy more expensive alternative drugs from other sources.
“The number of drugs in short supply is increase at an alarming rate and hospitals are working diligently to reduce the impact on the patients they care for,” said AHA President and CEO Rich Umbdenstock.
The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) conducted a survey as well, with the University of Michigan Health System. It found that labor costs and time needed to manage shortages are significant—estimated at an annual financial impact of $216 million nationally.
What has Obama to do with this disturbing health crisis? In his 2012 budget, Obama called for cutting the number of years drug makers could exclusively market brand-name biologic drugs to 7 years from 12 years. This means drug companies would have less time to profit from a new drug. So, they may not spend the $1 billion or more to make the drug.
Obama also wants to end “pay-for-delay” deals that affect traditional, “chemical” drugs by giving the Federal Trade Commission the power to block the deals. “Under such pacts,” as a story in Reuters explains, “brand-name and generic drug makers settle patent challenges with payoffs that delay lower-cost rivals from reaching the market.” Both brand and generic drug industries want to preserve the pay-to-delay settlements. Preserving the delays keeps the current manufacturers viable and continuing to supply needed drugs to the market on a regular basis.
Biologic medicines cost much more than ordinary drugs. They are much more expensive to manufacture. They also are proving to have better long-term outcomes with fewer side effects. Studies show “this leads to quicker recovery time and less additional treatment,” according to Consumer Health Information Corp. Obama and his co-conspirators at the Department of Health and Human Services (HEW) have been seeking–with the determination of a lion in a death chase after a zebra–to make all medicines generic because they are cheaper and could save money to spend elsewhere in the overly costly ObamaCare fiasco.
Biologic drugs—which Obama indirectly wants to restrict–are called the drugs of the future. They may be a vaccine, blood component, allergenic, somatic cell, gene therapy, tissue, recombinant therapeutic protein, or living cell used to treat diseases. Gene-based and cellular biologics are often at the forefront of medical research and can be used to treat a breadth of medical problems when no other treatments are available.
The Reuters article said HEW Secretary Sebelius “was unapologetic about the extra savings” to help cover other health costs. The two Administration proposals to get cheaper generics were said to save $11 billion over 10 years.
But there’s a sizeable catch: only about half of the brand-name drugs on the market today have a generic equivalent. Some drugs also are protected by patents and are supplied by only one company. So, Sebelius or anybody else will never be able to replace all brand medicines with generics.
An FDA press release on drug shortages said the agency “works with other firms who manufacture the drug, asking them to ramp up production if possible to prevent or mitigate a shortage. FDA encourages reporting shortages, and companies voluntarily provide shortage information. But they are not required to do so unless the drug manufacturer is the sole maker of a drug that’s “medically necessary.”
In the report of a meeting last year of the American Society of Health System Pharmacists, participants also touched on the ethical dilemma they face in having to prioritize use of any remaining stock of drugs involved in a shortage. Who gets
the desirable medication, and who gets what may be a less desirable alternative drug? The stress of making such decisions can be seen in the brutally honest and emotional responses from survey participants. As noted by one respondent, when a suitable alternative for a lifesaving drug is no longer available, “I guess patients just have to die.” Another respondent asked, “What do I tell our breast and lymphoma patients? You had a curable disease but not anymore because there is no drug available?”
The FDA announced Aug. 9 it was holding a meeting September 26 of industry and consumer groups to discuss reducing the drug shortage. The agency could expedite the approval process for new drugs, as has long been sought by pharmaceutical manufacturers.
But undoubtedly most effective would be a realistic posture by the Obama Administration that it not only can’t control all health problems, but also that it doesn’t even know such facts as: for some drugs there are no cost-effective generic versions.
________________________________________
Article printed from FrontPage Magazine: http://frontpagemag.com
URL to article: http://frontpagemag.com/2011/08/24/drug-shortage-crisis-grows-2/
Thank you for the article. Exactly what I was told.
Yes, no light at the end of this hellish tunnel. Defund, Repeal NOW.
I had just read something very similar regarding Celebrx.
Sales for Celebrx rank 20th among ALL prescription drugs (pretty impressive, eh?) with annual sales in 07 at $1,416,084,000
Applicant Ingredient NDA Number Approval Date Type Patent Number Patent Expiration Exclusivity Expiration Patented / Exclusive Use
Gd Searle celecoxib 020998 003 Aug 29, 2002 RX Dec 15, 2009 NEW PATIENT POPULATION
Gd Searle celecoxib 020998 001 Dec 31, 1998 RX 5,466,823*PED May 30, 2014
Gd Searle celecoxib 020998 003 Aug 29, 2002 RX Jan 29, 2009 PEDIATRIC EXCLUSIVITY
Gd Searle celecoxib 020998 003 Aug 29, 2002 RX Jul 29, 2008 FOR RELIEF OF THE SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF ANKYLOSING SPONDYLITIS
Gd Searle celecoxib 020998 003 Aug 29, 2002 RX 5,972,986*PED Apr 14, 2018
Wow... that didn’t copy over very well... here’s the info link:
http://www.drugpatentwatch.com/premium/preview/detail/index.php?
searchtype=alpha&category=Tradename&searchstring=CELEBREX
There can be more than one patent for a single drub based on the application of is to certain, specialized uses, pediatric use, etc. There are also “exclusive uses” granted which prohibit other pharmaceuticals from using a “generic” or similar drug for that specific purpose.
From what I gather on that site, Celebrex has two patents. One which expires May 30, 2014 and a second which expires August 14, 2018
http://askville.amazon.com/long-brand-drug-patent/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=37279405
Lipitor is the ONLY drug that controls my cholesterol.
I have tried generics and they are not effective. If I don’t take it my Ch. goes over 600. (Not exagerating) So it’s been nice knowing you all.
Drugs in short supply?
Social services looted?
Energy lean, and must cut back?
Not enough jobs?
Not enough doctors or hospital space?
The governments solution to this, is allow in millions more from Mexico into the U.S.
So, lets import millions more from Mexico, Pakistan, India, etc, etc...
Either that, or the government will just have to be satisfied by strafing Americans or maybe poisoning their food supply..
Thanks for that link. I like this part.
The information provided in this section is provided voluntarily by manufacturers. FDA cannot require firms to report the reason for shortage or duration of the shortage or any other information about shortages.
I guess that’s why I didn’t see the one I can’t get anymore in the list! lol
We are paying drastically higher drug prices right now. The price of drugs, generic and prescription, are skyrocketing.
I can’t take any of the statins. They all mess me up one way or the other. Lipitor put me in the emergency room. Sad thing about that was that the people in ER said it wasn’t the Lipitor, but when I saw my doc for the follow up, he told me to stop taking the Lipitor as all the things that sent me to the ER were side effects of the Lipitor. I told him I had already stopped taking it on my own. I can read and knew darn well it was behind the ER visit even if ER was too stupid to recognize it.
My mom couldn’t take it either. Messed up her liver, for me it was my kidneys.
Ok. Please excuse my igno-ness. I don’t know what BTTT means.
Did I mess something up or misread something?
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