WASHINGTON — President Biden’s new plan to curb drug shortages by boosting domestic drug production won’t expand the supply of the chemotherapies that are currently in shortage, an administration official confirmed. The limited scope surprised experts, who told STAT Biden could have included those drugs in the effort.
The 15 cancer drugs in short supply account for only a little more than 10% of the drugs on FDA’s shortage list. But chemotherapies are far more crucial than many other drugs experiencing shortages, which include injections of amino acids and multivitamins, and sterile water. Gut-wrenching stories about cancer patients being switched to less-effective drugs have caused cancer doctors to agitate for government solutions.
Biden announced last week that he plans to use the Defense Production Act to get companies to make essential medicines and their ingredients in the United States. The administration will spend $35 million to boost domestic production of key starting materials for drugs that hospitals commonly use and are prone to shortages.