Even before California patients face the stress of high costs at the pharmacy, they can be met with another barrier that negatively affects their care: drug shortages.
The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists reports nearly 300 active drug shortages in the third quarter of 2024. Moreover, 50% of these active drug shortages have persisted for two or more years. Among the most troubling shortages cited by pharmacists are chemotherapy drugs for cancer and generic sterile injectable medications — including emergency medications stored in hospital crash carts.
Patients across California experience delays in care as a result, with shortages of critical pain medications, IV fluids, and other drugs leading to increased stress and worse health outcomes for patients and their loved ones. Drug shortages have a particular impact on cancer patients—a 2023 survey of cancer centers nationwide found that 86% reported a shortage of at least one type of anti-cancer drug.
What is responsible for the shortages of chemotherapy medicines, antibiotics, and other common treatments that many Californians rely on? Largely unknown middlemen in the healthcare supply chain: group purchasing organizations, or GPOs. GPOs are entities within the supply chain that oversee the purchase of medicines and products for healthcare providers, such as hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes.
Three GPOs alone control drug purchasing for 90% of all U.S. hospitals. This allows the GPOs to exert significant authority and influence over the ability of California patients to access the treatments they need.
Although there are additional reasons for drug shortages, at their root are these healthcare supply chain middlemen who hold such immense power over large contracts and control production. GPOs operate with significant power, but receive insignificant oversight — long avoiding attention from lawmakers and regulators despite fueling drug shortages that impact us all.
How do GPOs operate? GPOs leverage sole-source contracts with hospitals, which places increased pressure on the suppliers of certain generic drugs and leaves the supply chain more vulnerable to drug interruptions and other threats. With already thin margins on lower-cost generic drugs, lower wholesale prices driven by GPOs cause drug manufacturers to lose out financially on these medicines — disincentivizing others in the drug manufacturing industry from supporting the supply chain.
What can be done about GPOs and drug shortages? Federal lawmakers and regulators have investigated other harmful middlemen in our healthcare system, such as pharmacy benefit managers, that significantly increase the cost of drugs. With Congress and regulatory agencies closer than ever to finally addressing the impact of PBMs on patients, it is time to also look into the power GPOs have over the supply chain and the causes of these drug shortages.
Members of the California congressional delegation and other lawmakers should act to root out the practices of GPOs and other entities within the supply chain that intervene and create significant barriers between patients and the treatments they need. Attention to this issue is critical, as policies such as tariffs, which have garnered increasing attention from policymakers and in the media, could worsen existing challenges for patients caused by shortages.
A single patient waiting for — or missing — a treatment for cancer or any other complex condition due to profiteering practices is one patient too many.
Marcia K. Horn, JD, is the president and CEO of ICAN, the International Cancer Advocacy Network, a nonprofit where she specializes in research advocacy.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Opinion: Healthcare middlemen fueling drug shortages for California cancer patients )
Also on site :