Pharma News
IMS Health enlisted as information provider for drug shortages
The Generic Pharmaceutical Association (GPhA) announced on 19 April 2012 that it had selected IMS Health (IMS) to serve as the Independent Third Party in the Accelerated Recovery Initiative (ARI), providing information on generic drug shortages to FDA.
Also noted on pharma: 11 May 2012
UK government considers carrying out survey on drug shortages
The UK Department of Health (DoH) is considering a one-off survey of community pharmacies in England to assess the impact of drug shortages, Health Minister Simon Burns has confirmed. The move has followed requests from Ministers of Parliament (MPs) to carry out such a survey.
MP Irranca-Davies said, ‘in the meantime, I urge pharmacists and GPs to write to their MPs and demand that they lobby the health minister to carry out this research.’
The problem is far from being resolved, a Chemist+Druggist’s 2011 Stock Survey of pharmacies in the UK found that more than 140 pharmacists had seen a patient’s health suffer because of supply problems.
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Source: Chemist+Druggist
FDA says efforts to prevent drug shortages are working
FDA Commissioner Ms Margaret Hamburg has reported that the FDA’s office of drug shortages has made progress in preventing drug shortages and working with industry to provide advanced warning when the agency is unable to prevent a shortage. In a posting on the agency’s FDA Voice Blog on 3 May 2012, Ms Hamburg said that she was ‘both amazed and delighted to see the progress that’s been made’.
Amgen enters biosimilars deal with PRA
Clinical Research Organisation (CRO) PRA announced on 26 April 2012 that it had entered into an agreement with US biotechnology giant Amgen as the sole provider of CRO services for ‘a series of phase III studies to develop several biosimilar drugs on a worldwide basis’.
CMS rules add to US drug shortages
Results of a survey carried out by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) and published on 22 March 2012 point to the fact that ‘too strict’ rules from the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have led to waste of medications already in short supply.
Also noted on pharma: 13 April 2012
Drug shortages increase again in 2011
Despite efforts by FDA the number of drugs in short supply has increased again in 2011, according to data from the University of Utah, USA. Levels are more than 4.5 times higher than in 2004, when 58 drugs were reported to be in short supply, and have reached a new record high of 267 drugs experiencing shortages.
Related article
Record high drug shortages in the US
Source: The Washington Post
Also noted on pharma: 6 April 2012
MPs concerned over medicines shortages in UK
Nineteen UK Ministers of Parliament (MP) have now signed a Parliamentary motion demanding that the government holds ‘urgent discussions’ on the selling of UK medicines abroad, which according to many is only serving to exacerbate the current drug shortage situation in the UK.
Source: Chemist & Druggist
Canada drug shortages
Sandoz, the generics unit of pharma giant Novartis, is at the centre of Canadian drug shortages, however, the company is assuring Canadians that it will not raise prices of drugs sourced from overseas.
Top 10 most read GaBI Online articles in 2011
2011 was a busy year and biosimilars was the hot topic of the year for GaBI Online.
GaBI launches GaBI Journal
- A new information source for generics and biosimilars -
