FDA Gears Up to Tackle Acute Shortage of Drugs

The US Food and Drug Administration has revealed that it will be tackling the acute drug shortages affecting hospitals in the country though it added that there was no easy fix for the problem.

Hospitals in the United States have been dealing with acute drug shortage with more than 178 drug shortages reported last year.

The FDA revealed that the number is very likely to be higher this year and added that more than half of the drug shortages could be linked to quality or manufacturing issues.

According to Edward Cox, who is the coordinator of the drug shortage program at FDA, over 54 percent of the total drug shortage last year was linked to quality or manufacturing issues, 21 percent of the shortages were due to delays and capacity issues, 11 percent because of discontinuations while over 5 percent were due to raw material issues.


Source: Medindia