Stories of critical drug shortages--including cancer drugs--have been making news for months. Now the Food and Drug Administration is announcing that replacement supplies of two of those drugs, Doxil and methotrexate, should be available within weeks.
Both drugs are used to treat cancer. Methotrexate is used for many conditions, but of particular concern is its use for a type of childhood leukemia. If a child does not get the drug, the cancer can easily recur.
As the New York Times reports, some experts say the new supplies are only a temporary solution:
Dr. Peter C. Adamson, chairman of the Children’s Oncology Group, which is financed by the National Cancer Institute, said he was pleased that the immediate threat of a methotrexate shortage had passed. “But this is at best a Band-Aid approach to the problem,” he said.
Shortages of both drugs developed when Ben Venue Laboratories temporarily closed its manufacturing facility in Bedford, Ohio, because it could not guarantee product safety.
In the case of Doxil, which is used to treat ovarian cancer, multiple myeloma and AIDS-related Kaposi’s sarcoma, the F.D.A. has decided to allow temporary shipments from India of Lipodox, which is similar to Doxil and is made by Sun Pharma Global.
The FDA says it is also permitting the pharmaceutical company Hospira to ship 31,000 vials of methotrexate from its overseas facilities to hospitals and treatment centers across the U.S. This quantity of vials is enough to meet U.S. demand for one month.
At UC San Francisco, oncologist Alan Venook, said drug shortages have affected his practice as well. But he expressed concern about drugs coming from overseas. "You do worry about quality assurance, this is a real issue," he told me. "is it a good solution? I don't think so, but it probably will be fine."