National drug shortage crisis hits Covid vaccine rollout

National drug shortage crisis hits Covid vaccine rollout

Nurse Laura Bailey draws the Moderna vaccine from the first batch of Moderna's vaccine at Hartford hospital in Hartford, Connecticut on December 21, 2020.Joseph Prezioso | AFP | Getty ImagesWhen Covid-19 patients started filling up intensive care units at East Coast hospitals last spring, shortages of protective masks, gloves and gowns for front-line workers garnered headlines. Less heralded was the paucity of drugs needed to treat the stricken – in particular opiates, sedatives and paralytics."We literally were down to a handful of days' supplies," said Ross Thompson, chief pharmacy officer at Tufts Medical Center in downtown Boston. "We were begging and tweeting with the vendor community to make sure we would never completely run out."Thankfully, Tufts avoided such a worst-case scenario as drug manufacturers, wholesalers and group purchasing organizations answered the call, and doctors and pharmacists found alternative medications to treat patients.Still, the pandemic has revealed a health-care dilemma that's plagued U.S. hospitals for at least the past two decades: recurring shortages of dozens of essential drugs, especially injectable generics, required to treat a range of acute conditions and chronic diseases -- from infections to cancers. The problem is the result of Big Pharma offshoring about 80% of the production