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US affected by widespread antibiotic shortages from 2001-2013
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National drug shortages affected the supply of 148 antibacterial treatments from 2001 to 2013, with greater rates of drug shortage observed since 2007, according to recently published data.
“We found a tremendous number of drugs that are used to treat life-threatening infections that just were not available,” Larissa May, MD, of George Washington University, said in a press release. “There are implications that patients may not do as well clinically, or potentially even die because these agents are not available.”
May and colleagues analyzed drug shortage data from the University of Utah Drug Information Service database using standard descriptive analytics. A database-defined shortage is considered a supply issue affecting supply requests from pharmacies or instances where a health care provider was forced to prescribe an alternative treatment.
During the 13-year study period, there were 148 antibacterial drugs placed on shortage, the researchers wrote. Among these, 10 drugs were discontinued by the manufacturer, 26 remained active by the end of the study period, and 32 experienced multiple shortages.
Researchers observed a median of 10 new drug shortages annually (IQR, 7), and a median duration of about 7.5 months for shortages that were resolved within the study period.
An average of 14.2 drugs were on shortage monthly (95% CI, 12.8–15.5) during the study period. This average was 9.7 drugs per month before July 2007 and rose to 17.9 drugs per month after the date, resulting in a 0.35 increase of drugs on shortage each month (95% CI, 0.22–0.49).
“This is a big problem, one that we don’t really yet have a strategy to deal with,” May said. “There are some significant implications for patient care that are very disturbing and are likely to become more significant unless we take steps to mitigate them.” – by Dave Muoio
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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