A bipartisan share of Georgia’s congressional delegation is pressing the Food and Drug Administration for information about what it’s doing to ease a shortage of cancer drugs.
The shortage originated, according to a report from Bloomberg News, when a factory in India shut down due to deficiencies, reducing the supply of a generic chemotherapy drug called cisplatin. Then it became difficult to obtain another chemotherapy drug that can sometimes be used as a substitute, carboplatin.
As doctors turned to other medications, the shortage spread to additional drugs in a domino effect, the lawmakers wrote.
“Cancer hospitals in Georgia are currently tracking several drugs other than cisplatin as limited in supply, including carboplatin, fludarabine, fluorouracil, methotrexate, dacarbazine, idarubicin and Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG),” the nine lawmakers wrote. “Georgia cancer patients and their doctors deserve to choose treatment based on best evidence and what works for the patient without the additional burden of worrying about the availability and safety of drugs.”
Dr. William Dahut, chief scientific officer of the American Cancer Society, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that “many of these drugs are kind of the core backbone for treatments that have high cure rates.”
The shortage of carboplatin prompted the FDA to allow imports of a version of the drug produced in China that has not been approved in the U.S.
The Georgia lawmakers asked the FDA how it’s working to reopen the production plant in India and how the agency is ensuring drugs imported from other countries meet U.S. standards. They also asked how Congress could address the root causes of drug shortages, “particularly those affecting chemotherapy drugs, so that in the future, the closure of one manufacturing plant will not affect half of the U.S. supply of a critical drug.”
The FDA told the AJC that it carefully assesses the quality of overseas products to make sure they’re acceptable for U.S. use. It also laid out steps it had taken to address the ongoing drug shortages.
It may be as much a problem of economics as science.
Dahut said many of the drugs are generic and have a low profit margin, making their production a lower priority for drug companies.
The shortages have eased some after peaking earlier in the year, Dahut said. But problems remain. For example, of the 15 cancer drugs currently on the FDA shortage list, nine are used for treating children.
Signing the letter were Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, U.S. Reps. Rick Allen, R-Evans, Sanford Bishop, D-Albany, Buddy Carter, R-Pooler, Hank Johnson, D-Lithonia, Barry Loudermilk, R-Cassville, Lucy McBath, D-Marietta, Rich McCormick, R-Suwanee, and Austin Scott, R-Tifton, according to a copy provided by Warnock’s office.
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