A long crackdown on opioid production is having an unintended consequence during the coronavirus crisis: Many of these same drugs are essential for people on ventilators, and now there’s a shortage, Politico reports. Low stocks of opioids in coronavirus hot spots, where doctors have asked states to divert death row supplies to hospitals, are compounded by the looming shortages of a range of other drugs as hospitals struggle to cope with a wave of coronavirus patients. The growing scarcity of life-saving medications is a hint of things to come as the U.S. outbreak progresses. Reports from countries like Italy that are farther along in outbreaks suggest that complications in severely ill patients could prompt overwhelming demand for whole classes of drugs. Mounting drug shortages will make the current panic over low stocks of personal protective equipment “look like the tip of the iceberg,” said Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) who backs measures to stem drug supply issues linked to lack of transparency about where drugs are made and how much is stockpiled.
While the pandemic is unprecedented, such shortages are not. Health experts say the U.S. has been slow to strengthen the drug supply chain. Production at major pharmaceutical factories in Puerto Rico was disrupted by Hurricane Maria in 2017. Less than a year later, manufacturing problems at several other U.S. plants caused nationwide shortages of opioids used in surgeries and end-of-life care. At that time, the Drug Enforcement Administration was tightening supply limits for a range of opioids. Over five years, it halved production caps for drugs from fentanyl to morphine in response to the worsening opioid crisis. The agency last week relaxed some of those limits. It’s not clear how quickly drugmakers can ramp up supplies, and hospitals in hot spots are dealing with shortages by the hour.
1 Comment
Why can’t we start getting people off opioids instead of rewarding pharmaceutical companies by putting them on long term opiates? We can do much better than we are doing. Let’s provide medically assisted detox followed by mental health and we will put a real dent on the opioid crisis.
Check opiates.com for an example of available treatment options. People want to be off opioids and they deserve a humane and effective way of doing it.