Hospitals Scrambling for Meds Amidst Drug Shortage : FDA interference and STOCKPILING

www.foxnews.com...

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.

AND

The shortage that's made the most headlines is a sedative used on death row. But on the health-care front, shortages are wide-ranging, including

- Thiotepa, used with bone marrow transplants.
-- A whole list of electrolytes, injectable nutrients crucial for certain premature infants and tube-feeding of the critically ill.
-- Norepinephrine injections for septic shock.
-- A cystic fibrosis drug named acetylcysteine.
-- Injections used in the ER for certain types of cardiac arrest.
-- Certain versions of pills for ADHD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
-- Some leuprolide hormone injections used in fertility treatment.

No one is tracking patient harm. But last fall, the nonprofit Institute for Safe Medication Practices said it had two reports of people who died from the wrong dose of a substitute painkiller during a morphine shortage.

FDA inspections interfering with and stopping/slowing productions and stockpiling? Why is the FDA doing this? More filthy facilities? Contamination? More FDA manipulation?

But the Generic Pharmaceutical Association says some shortages are beyond industry control, such as FDA inspections or stockpiling that can exacerbate a shortage.

WHO is stockpiling and WHY? Where are the meds being kept and why arent they given to those who need them to live or hospitals that need the meds for emergencies? I worked in the healthcare industry for very very long time... we NEVER experienced this before. What is so different now?




I tend to keep up with this as my middle daughter is a liver transplant recipient. She received her transplant at 9 yrs old and is 12 now. Dealing with a plethora of medications, we stay pretty up to date on whats happening since from the start we have experienced problems obtaining certain drugs on time. When dealing with a liver that can be rejected ( which she has been in rejection 3 times now) you cant just "skip a day" and hope the pharmacy has it in a later shipment. We have experienced this a heck of a lot earlier than this article hints at with everything from ADEKs to Cellcept. Most of her meds are very expensive, Cellcept has a 1000.00 a month copay. Money for manufacturing is obviously NOT the issue. We now go through a mail order pharmacy and obtain meds 3 months at a time.


Id love to know what you all think and also wanted to give anyone a heads up who didnt know this was becoming a serious issue. Its kind of terrifying when you go to pick up the meds that keep your child alive only to have the pharmacy tell you they dont have it in stock and dont know when they can get it.

Originally posted by Advantage
FDA inspections interfering with and stopping/slowing productions and stockpiling?

Originally posted by Advantage
Why is the FDA doing this? More filthy facilities? Contamination? More FDA manipulation?Where are the meds being kept and why arent they given to those who need them to live or hospitals that need the meds for emergencies?

It kind of sounds like maybe the huge pharmaceutical companies don't like so much FDA interference in their profit stream and may be showing just how much control they truly have.

reply to post by Advantage


it is very de-humanizing ...

i take a pill 2 times a day.. it helps....

and the doctor DIDN'T believe me when i said it was in short supply.. i could have gotten 3 months worth,
,,3 months ago....

Today,, it is nowhere to be found...

looking for alternatives........ but no help..

my Doctor has no clue what is out there... local TV ran a story,,

i had to print out the story,, just so that THEY would know.....


frustrating ...and so because i got upset,, they ASKED me for a urine sample....!!!????


over the top.... i drink 6 times or so a year... I havent "inhaled" since college ...(1984)

what a MAN cant be upset and talk about it in public anymore,,, and NOT get a label
as a crank ,,,,or worse,, a user of drugs..?




ARRRGGGHHH






ONLY USER'S ,, ,, ,, LOSE DRUGS...!!

www.abovetopsecret.com...
or what if they are storing meds along with all the other supplies in norway it would make sense that along with all that space meds would be a high priority?

reply to post by Advantage


The FDA is artificially creating a shortage. Then the Obama Administration can step in and "release" all the stockpile, showing themselves as the saviours of a situation THAT THEY CREATED!

My 2 cents.
And I do have a perscription for my tin foil hat.

I've noticed a trend towards on-line acquisition of prescription medications becoming the preferred, if not yet prevelent, method of delivery.

It seems that the local pharmacists is slowly but surely being "edged out" of business across the nation.

On-line pharmacies seem to be offering better availability, better service, and, here's the "kicker", better prices, than "brick and mortar" pharmacists can afford to offer.


My question, in light of these supposed "shortages" of prescription meds is this:


Could these shortages be a part of an over-all "marketing scheme" to eliminate the "brick and mortar" local pharmacists in favor of a lower cost, more centralized distrubution model, similar to what Amazon has done to the booksellers trade?



My primary arguement against this trend, should it prove to be in fact true, is that if we allow vital prescription medications only one avenue for distrubution, no matter the solid arguements in in favor (convenience, quality control, better prices for consumers, etc.), we set ourselves up for a major crisis should that "single-source" suddenly become unavailable, either by circumstance or by design.

Originally posted by freakshowfatty
www.abovetopsecret.com...
or what if they are storing meds along with all the other supplies in norway it would make sense that along with all that space meds would be a high priority?

Thank you for linking that thread. I had not seen it yet.

Better add Morphine Sulphate and Oxycodone to that list,
Last trip to my pharmacy they had to send me elsewhere.
First time I've had that issue in 3 years.

reply to post by Advantage


They are trying to save or make more money! Even in the Uk basic things like paracetamol are being reduced from 500 mg to 200 mg (500 you used to be able to buy in most large supermarkets). Now the EEC have decided that the sale of natural herbs are going to be stopped (Now under final review after many objections). What you may find is that without the sale of natural products the pharmaceutical companies will end up controlling and selling these. My recommendation is learn plants and herbs. They are far superior to pharmacy medicine though some do have there benefit, but only if tried and tested over a number of years.

Control, control,control! This is your world, wake up and shout, this is not acceptable!
Love and Peace

Stockpiling? Who honestly gives a damn?

Humans have existed on this planet with the bare necessities of water, breath, food, and sex.
Yet suddenly there's something more to worry about? Something that was never needed before?

Originally posted by emberscott
Stockpiling? Who honestly gives a damn?

Humans have existed on this planet with the bare necessities of water, breath, food, and sex.
Yet suddenly there's something more to worry about? Something that was never needed before?

Unfortunately, some of us humans need a little bit more, as in certain prescription medications, to continue our existance on this planet.

And we get a tad concerned when the avaiabilityof the meds we need, and thus our existence, becomes threatened in any way.


In short, "Well, excuse me for living!"


And to be sure, expect that we will gladly return the attitude of care, concern, and dare I say, human compassion, should you or one of your loved ones ever find you or themselves in such need!


With all due apologies to Jerry Seinfeld's "Soup Nazi"; "No Pills For You!"

Really,. a drug shortage,..
wow,. we might see a spike in people getting healthy

Maybe this will cause Dr's to only prescribe some of these when they are absolutely necessary and not before...

The real motive is generally only plainly visible a good time from it's inception. I think it'll take time to see these out.

Odd...that's all I'll say for certain.

This is something I’ve come to realize a few years back…. They cut off the supply of all meds and about 1/3 of the population in the US and Canada will drop dead in about a week and another 3rd of the population will be totally demobilized. Millions more will go completely berserk because they can’t get their psychotropic drugs and no telling what kind of havoc they’ll heap on the remainder of us…

Forget about food shortages…. All they have to do is cut off the meds and they’ll get their population reduction and chaos all in one swoop.

reply to post by Advantage


While someone is stating FDA interference and stockpiling medication is the cause of shortages of some medications there could be less clandestine reasons for shortages.

A post appeared about shortage of ADHD (or ADD?) med was on ATS after the catastrophes in Japan. Now more med have made the list.

Manufacturing & processing plants that produce a wide variety of medications have to stock a huge amount of ingredients that have expiration dates. A break in the supply chain is going to have negative effects right on down to the final purchase level.

With all the catastrophe that are taking place around the world it's possible that several raw material suppliers have been compromised. The source of the material before it is processed into a sellable ingredient could be compromised as well.

Meanwhile in our down economy a lot of people have lost their jobs. Every office, warehouse, manufacturing plant that lets go of a group of people loses one or more in the group who are key people that know all the ins & outs to getting specific things done. The work still has to be done so its thrown at over-worked people already past their point of efficiency. This is taking place across the country. Things are falling through the cracks all over the place. There is lots of work not getting done, needed things not being ordered as well as processes being done incorrectly with poor results as angry, tired workers try to come up to speed with newly inherited tasks.

Along the way there is companies going out of business for whatever reason. A trucking company with thousands of trucks locked down by the court system, freight goes nowhere. A warehouse that goes out of business because of legal problems could have millions of dollars of product belonging to others that won't move for years. On and on it goes. A down-turn economy has many negative effects.

Humm probably a way to control human population? They don't want too many people living who are not qualified to be an elite for their future one world government.

Originally posted by darrman
reply to post by Advantage

 

it is very de-humanizing ...

i take a pill 2 times a day.. it helps....

and the doctor DIDN'T believe me when i said it was in short supply.. i could have gotten 3 months worth,
,,3 months ago....

Today,, it is nowhere to be found...

looking for alternatives........ but no help..

I really do empathize, darr. There have been a couple of posts
trying to put this in a humorous light-- but there's nothing funny
about feeling rotten. If we're of a like kind with anti-D's try a couple
of St.John's Worts and some light tea, it's a lot better than nothing.
Trust me on this one, it ramped me off the psychotropics in two months.
For almost twenty years I've been hard-chemical free. Peace.

And on-thread: this is commonplace when it came to gas shortages
in previous years, but now we're talking about the same thing as
the government deliberately refusing it's population medicine... it
doesn't matter if they're saving it for us or not.

I really do not know about the purported stockpiling. I have had issues with the pharmacy not having a medication before, and having to wait, but they always give me at least a partial, or have it the next day.

As far as expensive drugs making loads of money,( I am BY NO MEANS defending large pharma's and their profit margins, I know that we do get screwed on certain drugs, usually common ones. I also know drug companies use tricks to keep patents) but our premature son had injections of something called SYNAGIS, even with good insurance the copay was $2000-3000 a month for six months. Each single injection, depending on his weight full cost was on the order of $10,000 a pop. But because this is a specialty drug, I think there is a lot of cost that goes into the research and creation of certain drugs. You would really need to do research on a case by case basis.

reply to post by LargeFries



with the huge profits on meds I can't be convinced the pharma companies have problems manufacturing

what does it cost them to make a pill? about 0.1 cents, then they sell it to us for $1 per pill or more....

sounds more like a shopping list for a prolonged stay in a safe house

Originally posted by Highlander64
reply to post by LargeFries

 

with the huge profits on meds I can't be convinced the pharma companies have problems manufacturing

what does it cost them to make a pill? about 0.1 cents, then they sell it to us for $1 per pill or more....

sounds more like a shopping list for a prolonged stay in a safe house

They don't just go out in the backyard and find an "anti organ rejection" drug tree, or a "surfactant for babies lungs tree". It takes lots of researchers and scientists many years, if not decades to come up with some of these drugs. Then they have to perfect it, go through trials, figure out production, etc.

Hydrocodone doesn't cost much, you can get about 200-400 pills for $10 That's because it's been around for a long time. Ambien and Lunesta (especially lunesta) are expensive, but there are generics of Ambien such as Zolpidem, so Ambien patented a newer version called Ambien CR, that is dual acting.

There are cases where greedy pharmas find themselves in the position of being the only provider of a certain drug, and they raise the price, because the market allows for it, but the consumer knows what it used to cost in the previous market when there was more than one competitor. But you also have to figure in the fact that there's a reason the other makers stopped making it, and perhaps the remaining company does have to increase the cost to make a profit.