Thread: U.S. Scrambling to Ease Shortage of Vital Medicine

WASHINGTON — Federal officials and lawmakers, along with the drug industry and doctors’ groups, are rushing to find remedies for critical shortages of drugs to treat a number of life-threatening illnesses, including bacterial infection and several forms of cancer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/20/he...g.html?_r=1&hp

I googled the subject to find more information, but mostly found discussion boards.

The article doesn't go into detail as to why there are suddenly shortages, but the discussion boards are full of "Obamacare made it impossible for drug companies to turn a tiny profit, so the companies are dropping those drugs"..... the other is "walmarts $4 prescriptions are at fault"

I would be more interested in finding out the reason for the sudden decline and I also do not believe the government is the solution (as mentioned in the article).

Until we get more information, perhaps someone on this forum is in the medical field and can share some insight.

From the article: "More than half the recent shortages have resulted because government or company inspectors found problems like microbial contamination that can be lethal on injection. Others have occurred because of capacity problems at drug plants or lack of interest because of low profits, according to the F.D.A."

By the way, don't get caught up on the "lack of interest because of low profits" one. It's a red herring that the liberals at the FDA just threw in there. The only way profits could be low is if the drug is available in generic form, which is something that the FDA allows specifically to decrease profits. Therefore, essentially the FDA should be blaming itself for drug shortages if the last reason is the true cause. But they'd never do that.

Wouldn't be a problem if we nationalized our pharmaceutical industry.

Originally Posted by Hoplite

Wouldn't be a problem if we nationalized our pharmaceutical industry.

Yeah like when we don't have enough flue shots to go around, if this was left to the government you may not get anything you want.

Government is the most wasteful entity on this planet and anything it does is infiltrated with waste and fraud. Hell Obama said there was 500 billion in waste and fraud in Medicare. And you want them to provide prescription drugs. I don't think so.

Originally Posted by Hoplite

Wouldn't be a problem if we nationalized our pharmaceutical industry.

Recall all the difficulty and expense the government had in supplying ice after hurricane Katrina?

The FEMA ice follies revisited - Nightly News - NBC News Investigates - msnbc.com

If the feds can turn thousands of dollars of ice into a $12.5 million expense I'd hate to see what they could do with drugs.

FEMA To Melt Ice Stored Since Katrina - CBS News

What makes you imagine a government that can't manage ice storage and delivery could manage medicine production and distribution directly in an efficient and economic fashion?

Although JDJarvis and Forplay already responded to Hoplite's post, I'll add to it. What happened to vaccines during the Clinton administration was that Clinton essentially nationalized the flu vaccine, as Forplay mentioned. Subsequently, all but one company stopped manufacturing the vaccine because it was unprofitable. We then had a shortage. And the liberals were like "this is outrageous, how can companies stop making a vaccine?!?" To them, their actions were irrelevant. They only focused on the company. That's why you always get discordance over things such as this, which are fairly factual -- one side ignores their own role in the problem.

Originally Posted by C-B-M

Although JDJarvis and Forplay already responded to Hoplite's post, I'll add to it. What happened to vaccines during the Clinton administration was that Clinton essentially nationalized the flu vaccine, as Forplay mentioned. Subsequently, all but one company stopped manufacturing the vaccine because it was unprofitable. We then had a shortage. And the liberals were like "this is outrageous, how can companies stop making a vaccine?!?" To them, their actions were irrelevant. They only focused on the company. That's why you always get discordance over things such as this, which are fairly factual -- one side ignores their own role in the problem.

Therein lies the purpose of government. One cannot allow the profit motive to rule to the extent a drug company can put themselves ahead of the health of our nation. Thats "treason" ! Some would like health care run the same way and it is except for those elderly on Medicare, Medicade ETC.

We IMO are becoming a nation of degenerates with an infective brain disease we are spreading from one to the other.

France at one time had a monopoly on Quinine and went so far as to protect their distribution and price with armed guards.

Pretty soon all rational thinking people will fit into one phone booth.

Originally Posted by skeptic1

France at one time had a monopoly on Quinine and went so far as to protect their distribution and price with armed guards.

They also mandated the price of bread and loaves shrunk, they then mandated the weight along with price but failed to require bread not contain stones and sawdust.

Originally Posted by skeptic1

Therein lies the purpose of government. One cannot allow the profit motive to rule to the extent a drug company can put themselves ahead of the health of our nation. Thats "treason" ! Some would like health care run the same way and it is except for those elderly on Medicare, Medicade ETC.

There are two major problems with your way of thinking (that is, the liberal/socialist way).

1) Your premise is that government will prevent shortages ...when, in fact, as we have already shown government has caused the shortages.

2) More centrally, your maligning of the "profit motive," as you put it, is the real flaw. Liberals love to harp on how evil profits are, as if to imply that they are "above" that sort of base behavior. That only means one of two things: either they are hypocrites (since liberals work for money, just as we all do) or they are impoverished failures (since they have at least followed their principles and abandoned the "profit motive"). Now, a LOT of liberals pick the first option but act like they aren't hypocrites because they "work for a think-tank" or something that happens to be government funded -- which is why they love government. No competition, but you still make a comfortable living AND you can tell yourself that you're "above profits" because you never have to think about the bottom line. After all, the government just gets what it wants from taxpayers. How much more pure could that be? You just name your salary or funding need and then take it, no need to "profit."

You make a grand speech about how you put the health of the nation first. But you're not actually doing anything about the health of the nation, nor is government. All you're doing is telling OTHER people that actually do stuff to "put the health of the nation first." That's government in a nutshell. Government doesn't actually do or produce anything; all it does is sit around telling everyone else "how things should be" and then pats itself on the back for being so compassionate. If you weren't such a hypocrite, you as a liberal should go into the pharmaceutical industry and manufacture drugs with no concern for profits and only focus on the "health of the country." But you could never do that, nor could any liberal. Or you could go to medical school and become a physician and work without concern for your salary and only focus on "the elderly." But again, you could never do that, nor could any liberal. In fact, if I went to the workplace of any liberal and asked (or, rather, forced) them to do their work with no regard for profits and just care about "the people," they would revolt. That is because liberals talk a good game when it's OTHER people that have to follow their plans.

this is an strategic industry. I believe the commerce dept was asleep at the wheel. not to delegitimize Israel but they
now own aprox. 65% of the generic world wide market. no ' anti trust laws' to prevent monopolies kicked in.
this subject is vital to our sovereign nations well being. I repeat...strategic industry(pharmaceuticals)