Our Generic Drug Supply Is Sick - The New York Times
New York TimesSep 18, 2021
US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is reportedly considering importing chemotherapy drugs from unapproved foreign manufacturers temporarily to help ease the nationwide shortage of at least 14 cancer drugs.
This comes as some hospitals and clinics are completely out of oncology medications, while in others doctors are being forced to either ration cancer drugs or decide which patients will receive them first.
A cutthroat generic drug industry has exacerbated the worst aspects of the free market. Manufacturers have offshored their factories to reduce FDA inspections and have been caught falsifying clinical trials and with substandard quality control. Most drugs in the US are sourced from outside of the country in the pursuit of profit. A national rating system for companies and factories would force drug companies to clean up their act.
Government interference in the market has made it unprofitable to produce lifesaving medicine, as efforts to lower drug prices make drug manufacturing increasingly more expensive and the supply chain more fragile. Pharma troupes are forced to outsource and cut corners to stay solvent — just as the government bears down on them to reduce healthcare spending. Tax cuts and other incentives would help shore up our drug supply.
There's a 50% chance that there will be a breakthrough in the treatment of hard-to-treat cancers by September 2031, according to the Metaculus prediction community.