In June 2018, a bipartisan group of 31 U.S. Senators and 104 members of the House of
Representatives wrote to Scott Gottlieb, MD, then Commissioner of Food and Drugs, to ask for
assistance in addressing the Nation’s drug shortage crisis. Their letters urged the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA or “the Agency”) to convene a task force to study the problem, prepare a
report on the root causes of drug shortages, and make recommendations for enduring solutions.
In response to this request from Congress, the FDA convened an inter-agency Drug Shortages
Task Force (“Task Force”) of senior officials drawn from its own ranks and several partner
Federal agencies.1 The Agency invited public participation through a public meeting on
November 27, 2018 with a docket to receive comments, and invited stakeholders to a series of
listening sessions. The Task Force commissioned a team of FDA economists and other scientists
to analyze drugs that went into shortage between calendar years 2013-2017 with a view to
understanding the underlying forces that were driving them. The analysts relied on the statutory
definition of drug shortage, as a period of time […]
This problem is, of course, worst than reported as many of the pharmaceutical companies benefit from publically funded studies, but get to privatize the profits associated with their products. We need to address the fundamental dynamic of cost shifting in the entire culture in order to set the system aright.
I totally agree with you Mr. Eddie. I couldn’t even get the monthly Covid tests this month because they had supply problems, but I did get a chance to switch to another company which will send them. I will not let anyone into my home unless they first take a covid test, and pass it.