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There's a glaring shortage of injectable cancer drugs in market circulation, all because manufacturers are unable to make money off of them, experts told a U.S. House subcommittee last week.
The testimony came before the Health Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where the subject of the hearing was to consider reauthorization of the Pandemic and All Hazards Preparedness Act (PAHPA).
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Two experts told the panel that the shortage of certain injectable generic cancer drugs is acute and growing worse as time goes on. The hearing was held amid an ongoing shortage of chemotherapy drugs, evidenced in a recent National Comprehensive Cancer Network survey,
"Today's shortages are the worst I have seen in my 30-year career," Julie R. Gralow, Chief Medical Officer & Executive Vice President of the Association for Clinical Oncology, said in written testimony.
"In 2022, approximately 100,000 Americans were diagnosed with ovarian, bladder and testicular cancers, cancers which may rely on cisplatin or carboplatin for treatment. These 100,000 patients may not have access to lifesaving treatment."
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The drugs can also be used to treat cervical, endometrial, lung, head and neck, bladder, esophageal, gastric, breast and more cancers. Gralow added that as many as half a million Americans might be affected by their shortages each year.
"From 2010 to 2020, eight of the 10 most frequently used drugs to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia — the most common childhood cancer — were at some point temporarily unavailable," she said.
Ted Okon, executive director of the Community Oncology Alliance, put the problem even more starkly. "As a result of these drug shortages Americans with cancer are facing treatment delays, potentially receiving inferior treatments and even having their treatment stopped," he said.
"What is heartbreaking is that Americans with potentially curable cancers may miss treatments or even a cure because of these shortages. Our inaction in fundamentally solving the cancer-drug shortage problem has likely signed a death sentence for Americans."
Well-intentioned programs that cap generic prices and require manufacturer discounts are band-aids that actually cause the shortage of injectable generic cancer drugs to become worse, said Okon.
"The fundamental root cause of cancer drug shortages is financial," he said. "If a generic drug manufacturer cannot make a profit off a drug, it will simply stop making the drug."
Lives literally depend on Congress taking action, Okon said. "Congress needs to stop band-aiding the problem and fix the fundamental financial problem, as well as bring manufacturing back to the United States," he said.
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