Patients will not feel the affects of cancer drug shortages

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - Medical drug shortages have been an ongoing issue for around 20 years, and now those shortages have started to affect cancer-related medication.

As the world moves forward and progresses, so does the world of medicine, which has been creating a shortage among some older types of cancer medication treatment options. However, the shortage isn’t due to high demand, instead, the focus has shifted toward newer treatments.

“The overall shortages aren’t a specific cancer type or tumor type, it’s more the older generic medications, as manufacturers focus more on these newly evolving therapies, the immunotherapy, and targeted agents, there’s less focus on the older generic medications, and so sometimes it’s a business decision of not producing as much,” said Carrie Berry, PharmD, BCPS, BCOP, clinical pharmacy coordinator for oncology at Monument Health.

While the shortage hasn’t affected all cancer treatment options, patients have been notified that certain medications they are on may be affected by the shortage, but patients will still be able to get their treatment on time.

“Monument health specifically, it’s pretty much business as usual I would say. We’re working every day, looking at reports, working with buyers, working with our leadership team, our medical oncologists. We’re all working as a team to ensure that we can do our part to ensure availability of these medications. Our patients have not had to miss treatment, they have had no delays in treatment, and so we’ve been able to secure our supply of the current drug shortages,” Berry continued.

Barrie also said the FDA is currently working closely with professional national organizations to improve supply chain shortages.

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