Some oncologists across the United States have been forced to“Just from what I’ve heard and have read in the news, some patients have had their treatment adjusted, meaning they’ve had to completely switch protocols,” Teplinsky said. “Some patients in the country have not been able to get their drug at all. Some people are waiting to get a drug.Dr. Julie Gralow, the chief medical officer and executive vice president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, has never seen anything like this.
Valley, the Ridgewood-based hospital ranked among the state’s best, has maintained a supply for its patients, according to Teplinsky. And those supplies have grown slightly in recent weeks. “The other drugs may not be as effective in that tumor type. It may have different side effects and different impacts and how that patient will experience it. So it really is very … stressful and potentially can negatively impact outcome.”
“But they talk about: Do we give it more to people who need it for curative purposes, rather than people who have metastatic disease? And that’s really terrible that here we are in 2023, and we have to ration chemotherapy.”Nearly 80% of manufacturing facilities producing active pharmaceutical ingredients — the key ingredients that provide a drug’s intended effect — are located outside the U.S.
Those shortages have “cascading effects on patient care, causing delays in treatment, increasing the risk of medication errors, and requiring the use of less effective alternative treatments,” it noted.of drugs like carboplatin and cisplatin “heartbreaking and unacceptable” in a May statement.“The agency is working with manufacturers to expand production of the drugs by expediting review of new manufacturing lines, facilities, and suppliers of ingredients,” Pallone said in the statement.