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What the heck is happening to the drug supply in this country??? (VANITY)
2/29/2012 | Surrounded by blue

Posted on 02/29/2012 12:37:51 PM PST by surroundedbyblue

I"m a nurse anesthetist, and I just got a work-related email from my boss. Basically it said "please conserve midazolam, fentanyl, morphine, and hydromorphone.....supplies are CRITICALLY short & the hospital is struggling to maintain supplies".

Um, ok. The last time I checked, this was the United States, not Crapistan. How are we "critically short" on all of the major anesthesia drugs that we use??? Am I supposed to offer the patient a bullet to bite?

Are there any FReepers out there who have ties to the pharm industry and can explain this? Speaking with others throughout the hospital, I have learned there are critical drug shortages in the ICU, ER, and oncology areas.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: govtabuse; healthcare; healthcareobamacare; hopeychangey; obamacare; vanity
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To: surroundedbyblue

Obama is getting everyone use to rationing and who gets the drugs. Drugs to liberals and cold turkey to republicans.


81 posted on 02/29/2012 2:36:52 PM PST by AngelesCrestHighway
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To: surroundedbyblue

Here’s some REAL facts.

One of the MAJOR suppliers of these meds was literally shut down by FDA for issues related to the validation of some of the manufacturing processes. Use GOOGLE to search for FDA WARNING LETTERS.

This company makes generics and during an audit the FDA found ‘deficiencies’ in how the company validated how long the drug solution (liquid) was to be MIXED before the filling operation. To me, this is one BS observation by the auditors as there are numerous downstream verifications that the solution is homogenous prior to filling and afterwards. This is but one example of the Agency halting the manufacture of these drugs.

FDA has to show results and the only way they can do it is by making observations during an audit of a pharma co.

I have been in the industry for over 35 years and have seen it all. The pharma co’s WANT to make the drugs and NEED to make them to be in business.


82 posted on 02/29/2012 2:43:00 PM PST by GRRRRR (He'll NEVER be my President, FUBO! Treason is the Reason! Impeach the Kenyan)
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To: trailhkr1
And just why - when there's a shortage - can't they raise their prices? You know, like ‘capitalism’? The invisible hand and all? When the price gets high enough, new companies come in to make a profit. Something is stopping that process from working the way it should.

At some level, the government has taken control of what can be charged - what prices - for certain drugs... and the free market process had been short circuited.

83 posted on 02/29/2012 2:52:21 PM PST by GOPJ (GAS WAS $1.85 per gallon on the day Obama was Inaugurated! - - freeper Gaffer)
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To: surroundedbyblue

Maybe your hospital is experiencing financial issues because supply isn’t that short.


84 posted on 02/29/2012 2:53:34 PM PST by CodeToad (NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION!!!)
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To: surroundedbyblue

Blame the FDA

FDA tells companies exactly how much they are allowed to make.

They don’t allow anyone else to take up the slack if there is a problem.


85 posted on 02/29/2012 2:55:48 PM PST by TASMANIANRED (We kneel to no prince but the Prince of Peace)
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To: ottbmare

(The pharmacist,an Indian guy,then went on a long conservative rant,which I enjoyed.)

Silly Indian Guy, doesn’t he realize that he is a minority and thusly must walk lockstep with the demonrats or he is a sell out.


86 posted on 02/29/2012 3:07:58 PM PST by GraceG
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To: cryptical
"It’s my understanding that the DEA sets quotas for manufacturers of Schedule I and II medications. I read an article where Ritalin and other ADD drugs are in short supply because the DEA didn’t guess right."

That's part of the answer. My son was denied one of his recent prescriptions - no supply.

87 posted on 02/29/2012 3:15:32 PM PST by Think free or die
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To: surroundedbyblue
This is how my Wife who is a Neurologist here in Western PA explains it.

Many of the drugs have gone generic and there are limited number of producers. The generic makers have found they cannot produce economically and have shut down. The bran name producers have cut back because of generics and the donut hole expenses to the medicare recipients.

All of this was brought to us by government intervention. Many patents were shortened as cost savings and reimbursements no longer cover cost.
88 posted on 02/29/2012 3:41:00 PM PST by PA Engineer (Time to beat the swords of government tyranny into the plowshares of freedom.)
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To: surroundedbyblue

Bugs in sterile drugs? Behind the shortage of critical meds
http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/29/10541346-bugs-in-sterile-drugs-behind-the-shortage-of-critical-meds


Current Drug Shortages
http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/DrugShortages/ucm050792.htm
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/10/04/140958404/shortages-lead-doctors-to-ration-critical-drugs


In addition the laws against reimportation and similar mean that Americans pay for the development of every advanced technology.  We pay $20 for a pill that's $2 in Canada.  The $2 covers reproduction cost, but the $20 covers development, clinical trials, testing and the risk of failure.  We eat it all and the rest of the world gets full benefit of that development expense for free.  This must stop.  Dropping these special legal protections will instantly end this game.  Yes, there will be some therapies that won't be developed becasue other governments will refuse to bear their ratable share of the costs.  That's how the market works -- if there's no market for the drug, device or procedure in a nation at its "all-in" cost then it doesn't happen, no matter how "wonderful" it might be.
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?blog=Market-Ticker&page=3



89 posted on 02/29/2012 3:41:24 PM PST by preacher (Communism has only killed 100 million people: Let's give it another chance!)
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To: khelus; UCANSEE2

My Combivent is manufactured in Germany, while Dulera is manufactured in NJ by Merck (who is known to pay off politicians for favors)


90 posted on 02/29/2012 3:44:09 PM PST by Sarajevo (Money cannot buy happiness, but it's more comfortable to cry in a Mercedes than on a bicycle.)
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To: CodeToad

“Maybe your hospital is experiencing financial issues because supply isn’t that short.”

Uh, no. There are no financial difficulties at the facility. It’s part of a large healthcare system that’s quite profitable, despite it’s non-profit status.

Exactly what validation do you have to your claim that there’s no supply problems? Every source I’ve read has cited a shortage and there are many here experiencing the same.


91 posted on 02/29/2012 3:55:41 PM PST by surroundedbyblue (Live the message of Fatima - pray & do penance!)
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To: surroundedbyblue
Found out today that ondansetron is hard to get. It is an excellent drug to keep vomiting at an absolute minimum but is now getting hard to buy.
92 posted on 02/29/2012 4:15:51 PM PST by vetvetdoug
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To: surroundedbyblue

Exactly what “validation” do you have to say there is a national shortage just because you think there is?


93 posted on 02/29/2012 4:15:57 PM PST by CodeToad (NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION!!!)
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To: vetvetdoug

Oh great. That’s another drug I use daily. Guess we will be cutting back on that too & passing out barf bags


94 posted on 02/29/2012 4:18:27 PM PST by surroundedbyblue (Live the message of Fatima - pray & do penance!)
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To: surroundedbyblue
It's the new economy and I'm not making a joke. It's based on pure greed. The oil companies have been using it to extor....er increase profits for years now the rest of corporate America has caught on.

First the big ones stamp out the little ones and then they create a loose monopoly vital necessary commodity by agreeing to control supply and fix prices, agree not to compete, blame shortages that they created or anything that happens in nature everyday,phases of the moon,global warming, Arab snow fairies, caring not at all for the suffering they cause to their own people and their own country.

These multi-rich corporations own any and all who hold or gain political office in Washington and most states.

What do you expect when a congressional winner walks into an office with a fifty million campaign debt hanging around his neck.

He can play ball with the party establishment and be rich or stand on principles if he has any and be dead or ruined financially and career wise.

95 posted on 02/29/2012 4:30:26 PM PST by mississippi red-neck (You will never win the war on terrorism by fighting it in Iraq and funding it in the West Bank.)
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To: surroundedbyblue
Pentathol has been out of the US system for quite some time leading in a delay of executions because the drug dosages and drugs used are part of the law. Recently a couple of states imported pentathol from Europe and Dear Eric A**holder confiscated them! Why was he afraid they might kill someone?
96 posted on 02/29/2012 4:37:21 PM PST by carcraft (Pray for our Country)
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To: surroundedbyblue

Stock up on birth control. From what I hear, the students at Georgetown are going to use up the supply.


97 posted on 02/29/2012 4:38:07 PM PST by depressed in 06 (6 November, 2012, the day our embarrassment is sent back to Kenya.)
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To: surroundedbyblue

I would begin by checking personnel in the FDA for large deposits in the last year.


98 posted on 02/29/2012 4:43:09 PM PST by freeangel ( (free speech is only good until someone else doesn't like it)
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To: surroundedbyblue

My (sisters) brother-in-law is in an ICU in Hawaii on a vent and because of this shortage they had to take him off propofal and versed. My brother-in-law said they are crunching up adavan pills to keep him sufficiently sedated.

This is such a dispicable shame welcome to AMERITOPIA!


99 posted on 02/29/2012 4:43:09 PM PST by infool7 (Thy will be done O Lord)
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To: surroundedbyblue

I ran into this problem last year. One of my prescriptions is for Triamterene HCL, a diuretic. I have been on it for years, and I always got the generic capsule. About a year ago it dried up. I had to get a new script for it in tablet form. 3 months later and no tablets available. I had to get another new script for the name brand version at 3x the cost.

Now, every time I need a refill I have to call and see which of the three active scripts is in stock.


100 posted on 02/29/2012 4:57:00 PM PST by Petruchio (I Think . . . Therefor I FReep.)
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