Shortage of key hospital drugs a "major crisis"

Drug shortages (including of some very common medicines) appear to have taken hold.

The question is, why? Simple economics? Or is somebody stockpiling in anticipation of a SHTF event? Or something else?

Decide for yourself. And get what you need...while you still can.


I. Print Articles:

CBS News: Shortage of key hospital drugs a "major crisis"

Chronicle Herald: Drug shortage global issue

USAToday: Drug shortages set to reach record levels


II. Clips:

I've heard this reported as well, reminds me a little bit of Torchwood: Miracle Day really, same thing without the immortality thing. Personally, I think it is just stock pilling by certain pharmacological groups to jump prices up in anticipation of government instituted health care in the US. That is just a personal assumption though.

I think it's just a ploy to drive up the prices of drugs that they KNOW people need and will pay more for.

I Was listening to Coast2Coast the other night and they were speaking about this.

Anyone thats interested just look up C2C videos from the past 3 days.

Originally posted by dannotz
I think it's just a ploy to drive up the prices of drugs that they KNOW people need and will pay more for.

I Was listening to Coast2Coast the other night and they were speaking about this.

Anyone thats interested just look up C2C videos from the past 3 days.

It could also be a ploy to release surplus medication into the populous quickly so the supply will decrease fast, this will allow them to keep the prices where they are rather then having to lower prices to move supply. This keeps the profit margin rising. If they didn't create this type of event during a surplus then prices would go down, lowering profit margin. Businesses like this have to keep profits up or they can lose investors/stockholders.

They may also be low an liquid assets, creating the illusion of shortage usually gets people to line up. These quick sales may be ment to replenish a quickly dwindling liquid assets account.

Good find OP, this seams like an important find. I cut a bit of text from the articles.

I’m not sure you need to worry too much, unless you got a sickness that require hospital treatment. The drugs in shortage, isn’t non-prescription medication pain reliever but medicine used in the hospitals. The articles also suggest possible reasons for the shortage.

The last lines could be you'r explanation. Big companies with little or no competition, because of the patents they got.

The Food and Drug Administration says hospitals are running out of many important drugs, including popular chemotherapy medications such as Doxil.

So far this year, 180 drugs have been in short supply. Virtually all U.S. hospitals say they've been affected, and 82% say the problem has delayed care for patients, says the American Hospital Association.

"Usually, when you talk about shortages, it's either one of two things, or both, supply or demand. In this case, it really seems to be an issue with supply.

"The majority of these drug shortages really arise from one of a couple of possible reasons.

One of them is low capacity with the manufacturing process. A lot of these companies, a lot of these drugs are made in companies or factories that just don't have the capacity to make more.

A large percentage of these problems come when the inspectors, either the companies or the governments inspecting the production process, find contamination in these medications. They are more complicated to make.

Manufacturing has also grown more concentrated in recent years, resulting in fewer companies producing medications.