Medical professionals said they’re working around a supply distribution shortage of drugs. While they said there’s no need to panic, they said change is needed.
Dr. Ciara Sherling said she always wanted to work in the field of medicine.
“I was told that it was weird for me to like organic chemistry. So pharmacy is apparently really good for that," Sherling said.
It’s a field that Sherling said is always changing. Demand is changing, and what works changes. Right now, iron sucrose injections, supplements called Venofer, have a limited stock.
Venofer is intended to help treat iron deficiency anemia, often in patients with chronic kidney disease. It is also used to help other people with anemia such as women who are pregnant or people going through chemotherapy.
“Those are patients that whatever they're taking for cancer treatment, the cancer treatment itself can while it's killing, the cancer can also kill other cells with it. So that's going to be a case where somebody may be getting their chemotherapy. And if their chemotherapy is an injection already or an I.V. or whatever it may be, it may be helpful to get the iron," Sherling said.
The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists reports that American Regent, an injectable manufacturer, says there’s a shortage due to increased demand. Fortunately, there are other types of iron injections available.
“The people we need to save it for, we're doing that already. The alternatives that we have are just as good," said Sherling.
Shortages in the medical realm are not unheard of. In fact, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has a list on its website of current drug shortages.
Dr. David Jones, the pharmacy residency program director and the pharmacy clinical coordinator at the Wynn Hospital, says many manufacturers are now overseas, causing a supply distribution problem.
“What the public doesn't really realize is that a lot of our drugs are made overseas. So not only the active ingredients, but the excipients, which are like fillers that hold pills together and different IV fluids. And that poses a problem because when we need the drugs here on our soil and they're made in another country, we have roadblocks to get through and bottlenecks," Jones said.
Sherling and Jones said pharmacists work around the obstacles they’re presented with, so there’s no need to panic.
Jones urges the public to contact political leaders about the need for pharmaceutical drug manufacturers to be here in the United States.
A spokesperson from American Regent said, "The US market for intravenous iron has experienced an unprecedented increase in demand over the last year. Accordingly, American Regent has also realized a significant increase in demand for all its Venofer products. As a result, American Regent has increased its production and distribution of Venofer over the last year and continues to accelerate supply of product. Maintaining high quality supply of products to the market remains our top priority."