Pharma News

FDA says efforts to prevent drug shortages are working

Home/Pharma News | Posted 11/05/2012

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

Home/Pharma News | Posted 04/05/2012

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

Home/Pharma News | Posted 23/04/2012

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

Home/Pharma News | Posted 13/04/2012

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

Home/Pharma News | Posted 06/04/2012

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

Home/Pharma News | Posted 30/03/2012

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.

GaBI launches GaBI Journal

Home/Pharma News | Posted 01/03/2012

- A new information source for generics and biosimilars -

Canada’s generics and brand-name pharma come together to tackle drug shortages

Home/Pharma News | Posted 16/03/2012

Canada’s Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies (Rx&D) and the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association (CGPA) announced on 12 March 2012 their commitment and financial support in responding urgently to prescription drug shortages.

Greece drug shortages

Home/Pharma News | Posted 02/03/2012

A severe drug shortage is threatening to undermine the health and welfare of Greek citizens as prescription drugs and even basic over-the-counter medicines are in increasingly short supply. Even finding common drugs such as Aspirin has become a major problem in Greece.