Elizabeth Warren Still Has Plans For Things, Like Preventing Prescription Drug Shortages

Also keeping generic meds affordable.

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

2023 has been a rotten year for shortages of some prescription medicines, probably because Joe Biden just wants Americans to suffer, or because, in the case of some common generic drugs used for chemotherapy, years-long shortages have managed to get worse, but also in the same year when there were also shortages of ADHD treatments and some other medications, and that sure looks like a pattern, and/or an ongoing mess in how this country does healthcare, even. (My money is on stupid capitalism problems, as ever.)

The New York Times has a pretty good roundup (gift link) of some of the many proposals out there to help address shortages of common meds, like the cancer drugs carboplatin and cisplatin, which are “inexpensive and are used to treat up to 20 percent of cancer patients, according to the National Institutes of Health,” but also in short supply, which is not something you want to hear if you need chemotherapy. The Times, in what counts as “whimsy” for the Grey Lady notes that “At several congressional hearings this year, ideas to fix drug shortages were as numerous as the number of scarce drugs.”

Among the plans out there are President Biden’s November announcement that he’ll use executive authority to

expand federal authorities’ ability to invest in domestic manufacturing to ease some drug shortages, including those of morphine, insulin and flu vaccines. He also created a cabinet-level council focused on shortages and set aside $35 million to help prevent shortages of sterile injectable drugs like propofol or fentanyl, which are used in surgery.

Yes, now Fox News will probably quote that out of context to say that Biden wants to distribute fentanyl.

Among other proposals the article discusses (look, we gave you a gift link so we don’t have to summarize the whole thing), the Times looks at proposals to get the government involved in manufacturing.

The American Medical Association recently updated its policy on drug shortages, recommending that nonprofits or governments play a role in shoring up supplies, especially in the case of low-cost generic drugs that are challenging to make.

The group, which represents thousands of doctors, urged the U.S. government to consider manufacturing some drugs, citing the examples of Sweden, Poland and India. In a related move, Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat of Massachusetts, reintroduced a bill to create a federal drug manufacturing office that would oversee and encourage government production of certain medicines that are officially in shortage.

And indeed, Sen. Warren pointed out on Xwixter that the Times had put one of her plans in the newspaper, as would any parent of a promising legislative proposal. Warren rexeeted the Times story, adding,

This year, drug shortages reached their highest point in nearly a decade. That's devastating.  

A big shortage risk occurs when just a few companies make a drug. My Affordable Drug Manufacturing Act lets the government make these drugs when the market fails. It's a no brainer.

Well let’s take a quick look at this thing, also sponsored in the House by Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Illinois). Now, obviously, it doesn’t have a chance with the House under Republican control, but if Republicans keep making themselves noxious, there’s the hope that next year could change that.

When Warren and Schakowski introduced the bill in 2019, it was accompanied by a report on the many problems with our generic drug market, none of which result from generics not having catchy jingles that are repeated twice an hour on cable TV news programs.

Warren and Schakowski argue that the biggest problem with generic drugs is a lack of competition among manufacturers. So to stir things up, how about allowing the federal government to step in and add that competition by manufacturing some generics that are too costly? The Affordable Drug Manufacturing Act would allow the Secretary of Health and Human Services to “manufacture generic drugs in cases where the market has failed and strengthen the generic market for the long term by jump-starting competition.”

The bill would set up an “Office of Drug Manufacturing” within HHS. That office’s authority to manufacture generics would kick in under any of these conditions:

• No company is marketing the drug,

• Only one or two companies are marketing the drug, and the price has spiked;

• Only one or two companies are marketing the drug, and the drug is in shortage; or

• Only one or two companies are marketing the drug, the price is a barrier to patient access, and the drug is listed as an "essential medicine" by the World Health Organization.

The office would also be charged with manufacturing its own insulin, naloxone, and antibiotics, to keep those lifesaving drugs affordable and in good supply, and would also let the government publicly manufacture active pharmaceutical ingredients to make it easier for new companies to get into the generics business.

Dang, that’s some good stuff, looks to us! One blue-checkmark genius on Xitter replied to Warren, “Sounds like communism to me,” and although we suspect that “public highways” and “fire departments” also sound like communism to that person, we do like the Eurosocialist sound of Warren’s proposal. It’s a good damn idea! Way better than tax cuts for the rich, we’d say.

In related recent news, Biden also proposed earlier this month a framework for seizing the patents of some costly drugs if they were developed using public funds. The so-called “march-in rights” would let the federal government grab patents of some drugs and then create competition by sharing the patents with other companies that agree to make generic versions of the drugs, making them more widely available at lower costs. The government has technically had that power to do that since the 1980 Bayh-Dole Act, but so far no agency has actually tried it. That may change, looks like!

[CNN / NYT (gift link) / Sen. Elizabeth Warren / NBC News]

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