Hospitals Experiencing Anti-Bacterial Drug Shortage

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New study shows many hospitals across the country have had a shortage of 148 anti-bacterial drugs over last 13 years. Research conducted by University of Michigan Medical School and VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System.

The study released in the journal, Clinical Infectious Disease from the University of Utah Drug Information Services database. Researchers studied data from 2001-2013. IN 2007, antibiotic shortages started to worsen.

Antibiotic Shortage Quick Facts

  • Antibiotics that were in shortage are front-line antibiotics used to treat infection
  • Average time without a drug was nearly 9 months
  • Inject-able drugs generally ran short for longer periods than oral medications
  • 32 of the medications ran short more than once
  • At end of study, 26 antibiotics remained in short supply or were not available
  • In some cases, the only drug available to fight a certain disease ran short

Antibiotics in Shortage

  • Meropenem was short seven different times for a total of 1,114 days
  • Azetreonam: used to treat infections in patients allergic to penicillin
  • Trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole: used to treat pneumonia
  • Multidrug-resistant bacteria
  • MRSA: an antibiotic-resistant bacteria that infects some 78,000 people a year and can also be deadly, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
  • Carbapenem-resistant
  • Enterobacteriaceae
  • Clostridium difficile (C. diff): can be picked up in hospitals and doctors' offices, and in 2011 the bacteria was to blame for 500,000 infections and 29,000 deaths.
  • Injectible doxycycline: to treat Lyme disease, pneumonia, UTI’s: ran short 3 times during a 1,515 day period
  • Vancomycin: treats severe skin infections and endocarditis ran short 3 times for 373 days

Shortage Affects Treatment in Hospitals

Shortage affects doctors ability to treat a disease effectively and as quickly as needed
In a 2010 survey, clinicians reported "adverse outcomes" because of drug shortages in 20 percent of their cases.

Reasons for shortage

  • Rising cost of new drug development (about 2.6 billion per drug)
  • Drug companies are being choosy in which drugs they’re going to push because they need to make their money back quickly
  • Drug companies have been merging, prompting consolidation of their manufacturing facilities
  • Communication between hospitals pharmacies and drug manufacturers needs improvement
  • Profit margin for antibiotics is thin
  • Provides little incentive for companies to come out with new drugs
  • Some drugs such as one for the treatment of pneumonia is produced by a single manufacturer

Samadi's Take

Over prescribing drugs and dangers of drug-resistant bacteria is a problem, but not having enough drugs to treat serious infections or diseases in a hospital environment could be bigger issue. The average person may not believe a hospital doesn’t have enough anti-biotic drugs to treat diseases.

When drugs aren’t available, patients may not get the best care or may even face the risk of death. The Food and Drug Administration defines a drug shortage as a period when total supply of various versions of antibiotics is inadequate to meet projected demand at the user level.
Individual hospitals may or may not have some on hand, depending on use in the recent days, weeks or months. Hospitals and doctors are caught off guard when this happens.

This study concludes, in 50% of the cases, doctors and nurses learned about drug shortages from pharmacy staff. Study indicates the need for a new federal government program that would create incentives for the development of new antibiotics. Manufacturers should also be required to alert hospitals when drugs are running short.