Drug shortages are a common problem for healthcare facilities in the United States, but they’re usually resolved quickly and the drugs that are briefly missing are not lifesaving. Such is not the case right now in Washington state hospitals. Currently there is a cancer drug shortage that seems to be ongoing. Healthcare providers are slowly running out of their supplies of cancer curing drugs such as fluorouracil, which is the generic name of a drug that stops cells from making DNA.

Several facilities have made statements regarding the shortage, with The Swedish Cancer Institute stating its “making the difficult decisions to conserve and prioritize supply, re-evaluate treatment plans for some patients, and identify alternative therapeutics when possible.” One Swedish doctor said she’s been telling her patients “This week we have supplies. Next week we have supplies. … And then we don’t know.”

Seattle Children’s officials have had meetings to discuss who might be able to make do with less medication. “There was no easy answer on that list where we felt like, ‘This is a great kid to miss their medicine, it won’t matter.’ It matters for every patient,” said Dr. Sarah Leary, head of Seattle Children’s brain tumor and clinical research programs. “And we’re trying to measure how much it matters: Is it going to be life-threatening, or is it just going to make a risk that they need more treatment in the future?

This shortage is possibly caused by the low profit incentives for companies to make generic drugs. The shortage has been a national problem, to the point where the Biden administration has assembled a team to try to solve the long term problems that are causing drug shortages. 

We have lots of experience with cancer related medical malpractice cases. You can see our page on cancer malpractice here.