Toni Dezomits has had to change her ovarian cancer treatment plan due to a shortage of chemotherapy drugsToni Dezomits, a 55-year-old retired law enforcement officer, is fighting a recurrence of her stage 4 ovarian cancer. She had already undergone several rounds of chemotherapy when her doctor told her she had some more bad news.
"You have these two sub-optimal choices," she said. "I'm worried, because I know the drug I'm not getting is the one my cancer responded to very well [the first time]." As of this week, the US Food and Drug Administration said over 130 drugs were in short supply, 14 of which are cancer treatments. As a result, some providers have been forced to extend the time period between patients' chemotherapy sessions, while some patients have had to drive several hours to get treatment at different cancer centres.
The low cost of generic front-line cancer drugs has actually played a role in recurrent chemotherapy drug shortages, experts say. While the medications are cheap to manufacture, pharmaceutical companies are not incentivised to do so because they don't bring in large profits, said Dr Karen Knudsen, CEO of the American Cancer Society.
"An emergency solution is being put into place, but we are at a moment in time where there needs to be a more durable solution," she said.