Pharma News

Icelandic generics manufacturer Actavis announced on 30 January 2012 that it had formed a joint venture company with Polish biotechnology company Bioton for the development and registration of insulin products, including analogue insulins.

Despite attempts to solve problems with shortages of brand-name medicines in the UK, the issue is far from beings resolved. The latest news is that the UK’s wholesalers have called for a ‘third-party monitoring and survey service’ to help tackle medicines shortages, while the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) is calling for sanctions on pharmacists that act as wholesalers.

Drugs used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are in such short supply that FDA has reported that it receives hundreds of complaints from patients unable to fill their prescriptions.

Despite attempts to solve problems with shortages of brand-name medicines in the UK, the issue is taking up more of pharmacists’ time, is far from being solved and may be getting worse according to an online stock survey carried out by pharmacists organisation Chemist+Druggist.

Shortages of brand-name medicines are as much of a problem in 2011 as they were in 2010, according to a survey by the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC).

Injectable generics specialist, Hospira, is under scrutiny again regarding drug shortages caused by its continuing lack of compliance with FDA requirements. In fact, one analyst from The Wall Street believes that the company has production problems that require long-term attention and that could lead to it receiving a consent decree from FDA.

With all the talk about drug shortages in the US it might be easy to forget the rest of the world, but it seems that drug shortages are also hitting European countries and are affecting not just generics, but also biosimilars.

On 21 November 2011, a group of UK members of parliament (MPs) announced that they will hold a full-scale inquiry into the continuing problem of drug shortages within the National Health Service (NHS).

There finally appears to be some light at the end of the tunnel, with one of the main victims of shortages—the sterile injectable drug propofol—finally being declared no longer in short supply by FDA.

Action by the President
President Barack Obama signed an executive order 31 October 2011 to address an escalating shortage of life-saving medicines, his newest effort to advance social and economic measures that have stalled in Congress.