Drug Shortages at All-Time High | Hacker News Reader

Drug Shortages at All-Time High

money.cnn.com

6 pointssiculars8 comments

So how does this get hacked? More regulation? Enticing drug makers to make off patent drugs? Less regulation? Allowing foreign drug manufacturers to import supply?

All I know is that this is absolutely unacceptable.

One thing that we'll see is that many people will just go looking for their drugs where they can get them - outside of the U.S.A., via webshops, for example.

Another concern is that due to the closures of many nuclear power plants certain radioactive isotopes, which are used in cancer radiation treatment, become unavailable.

Some hacks:

Getting healthier so people don't need so many drugs. Non-drug alternatives.

Hmm... I dunno about that. People get cancer. Shit happens. There are many, many cases where the only way you are gonna live is if you get the right drug at the right time.

There's an awful lot of stuff where making dietary and lifestyle changes makes a difference. This is well established. For example, diabetes is significantly impacted by diet. In many cases, people would rather take a drug than substantially change their diet. However, if that isn't an option because the drug is unavailable, changing your diet is still an option.

Yeah, and there's an awful lot of stuff where you die without the right medication. Your comment seems especially flippant given the list of drugs listed in this article: things like anesthetics used in surgery, drugs used in emergency treatments, etc.

It's not intended as flippant at all. If you check my profile, there's a website where I talk about the fact that I have a very deadly medical condition and have gotten off like 8 or 9 prescription drugs. My remark was intended to be a sincere reply to the question asked: If you are concerned about drug shortages, one "hack" is to live differently so you are less likely to need those drugs (including anesthetic for surgery). Some of the drugs that there are shortages of have shown up in conversation on lists I belong to for my medical condition. I pay little attention to it because I am drug free for the last two years.

I get treated like a quack by much of the CF community. So it's hardly shocking that people here should think I am being flippant. However, in another thread on HN yesterday, there was a story about a $20 fan solving a problem better than the $8 million dollar solution that outside consultants were paid to design. "Hacks" often sound flippant, which is perhaps the reason it annoys me that my remarks on such topics are so routinely interpreted as "flippant" on this board and not a sincere attempt to contribute something meaningful to the conversation.

Peace.

Note that these companies are not failing to profit, it's just that older drugs are "not as profitable". It's a business decision to stop making a smaller profit, and maybe having to compete with Fougera.

Big Pharma, going out of its way to earn its bad reputation.

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