Shortages of drugs, including chemotherapeutics, are increasingly common in the USA, and compromise patient care, delay clinical trials and are associated with substantial financial costs. The recent shortage of vincristine, a chemotherapeutic used for most children with cancer and countless adult patients, presents a particularly vexing challenge. Drug shortages can cause patients unnecessary anxiety and challenge clinicians to ration lifesaving medications for which no alternative agent exists. We provide an overview of this problem and discuss potential solutions.
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University of Utah Health is a member of a Group Purchasing Organization, Vizient. The University of Utah Drug Information Service (UUDIS) has a contract with Vizient to provide them with information on drug shortages. The value of this contract is <5% of the budget for this nine-person unit. No funds are paid to E.R.F. The UUDIS provides all of the content for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) drug-shortage website at www.ashp.org/shortages. In the past 36 months, E.R.F. has received partial travel support (no honoraria) to provide continuing education or presentations from The Idaho Society of Health System Pharmacists, the Massachusetts Society of Health System Pharmacists, the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation, the American Society of Anesthesia, the ASHP, the University of Illinois at Chicago, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the FDA, the Mayo Clinic, the European Cooperation in Science & Technology (COST), the Immunoglobulin National Society, the Association of Critical Care Transport and the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. E.R.F. has also had an unpaid advisory position at CivicaRx. Y.U. declares no competing interests.
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Fox, E.R., Unguru, Y. Oncology drug shortages in the USA — business as usual. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 17, 128–129 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41571-019-0318-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41571-019-0318-x
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