28 generic drugs hit FDA's shortage list for the first time in 2020, and experts linked most of the newly added meds to the coronavirus pandemic.
When Dr. Jeremy Faust ordered medications for a coronavirus patient he planned to put on a mechanical ventilator several weeks ago, he saw warning messages pop up on his computer.
USA TODAY’s review shows that even as daily new cases of coronavirus declined nationally in May, more generics hit the FDA’s list: 11 for the month. “We're seeing a mental health pandemic that's not going to go away,” said Charles Nemeroff, professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Texas at Austin’s Dell Medical School.
“I've never experienced a shortage of multiple critical medications to this extent, all at once,” Esther Choo, an Oregon based physician who has practiced emergency medicine for more than a decade, said in May. “We have a menu of medications that we normally give for intubation,” said Megan Ranney, an emergency physician, who works at the Rhode Island Hospital in Providence. “Switching that last minute can be challenging for the nurses and for the doctors.”
AnestheticsPatients with severe COVID-19 symptoms need ventilators. But patients must be intubated first. That requires anesthesia. According to Vizient, the demand for essential drugs used for ventilation in April increased by more than 50% compared to January. Although supply increased along with demand, the volume of drugs ordered was 1.5 times greater than units available in April.
Continuous renal replacement therapy solution, for example, is used for patients whose kidneys stopped working and need continuous dialysis. “There're so many more critically ill patients,” Faust said. “There are a lot more patients on dialysis than usual.” Criticism of the French study’s methodology has followed, and experts have warned about side effects. But the FDA reported a lack of hydroxychloroquine on March 31 as demand increased rapidly. Two weeks later, azithromycin was added to the shortage list, followed by famotidine.
“In my entire career, I've never seen the shortage of Zoloft or sertraline before,” said Nemeroff, who has about 35 years of experience treating depression.
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