Cancer Drug Shortages Delay, Stop Work On Clinical Trials
23 Setembro 2011 - 9:15AM
Dow Jones News
Ongoing cancer-drug shortages in the U.S. have caused work on
hundreds of clinical trials to be stopped or delayed, threatening
progress on new cancer therapies.
Howard Koh, the assistant secretary of health for the Department
of Health and Human Services, said more than 300 trials funded by
the National Cancer Institute include a cancer drug in short
supply.
"The inability to obtain adequate supplies of these cancer drugs
for research has resulted in promising clinical trials being
suspended indefinitely and patient enrollment being abruptly
halted," Koh said in testimony prepared for the House Energy and
Commerce Subcommittee On Health.
The panel is scheduled to hold a hearing on drug shortages later
Friday.
The FDA reported a record 178 drug shortages in 2010. Koh said
there's "an even greater" number of shortages this year.
Most of the shortages involve older, generic drugs administered
by injection or intravenously. Along with cancer drugs they also
include antibiotics to treat infections and nutritional drugs for
patients who can't eat. They are mainly generic, not highly
profitable and are now made by only one or two companies. Teva
Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (TEVA) and Hospira Inc. (HSP) are
two of the bigger producers of generic drugs.
The shortages are growing more severe, in part, because of
industry consolidation and manufacturing problems in the past year.
When one company runs into a manufacturing problem with a product
or decides to quit making a drug, competing companies can't quickly
fill the void. In April, Teva reopened a California plant that it
had shut down voluntarily for about a year, in part to retool to
meet Food and Drug Administration manufacturing guidelines.
The cancer drug shortage involves chemotherapy drugs that were
developed decades ago. They are still the backbone of cancer
treatment as newer drugs are typically added to chemotherapy. Some
of the drugs that have been in short supply include doxorubicin,
often used to treat breast cancer, and cytarabine, a leukemia drug
that has no substitute.
The shortages of key cancer and other critical-care drugs used
in emergency rooms and intensive care units have caused the
majority of hospitals to ration drugs this year, according to
doctors and industry surveys. Hospitals and clinics have reported
delaying cancer treatment or switching to an alternative drug that
might not be as effective.
While the drug shortages continue to be a problem for patients,
doctors are concerned the delay in cancer clinical trials will
affect new and future treatments.
"The next generation of cancer therapy is driven by today's
clinical trials," said Robert DiPaola, the director of The Cancer
Institute of New Jersey.
He explained that experimental cancer drugs are often added to
existing cancer treatments in clinical studies in order to test the
new drug.
"During a clinical trial a shortage of only a few weeks in an
existing drug might mean delays of years for the development of new
drugs," DiPaola said.
-By Jennifer Corbett Dooren; Dow Jones Newswires, 202-862-9294; jennifer.corbett@dowjones.com
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