Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader in the Senate, laid out efforts to bolster the supply chain on Sunday, predicting a “panic” over dwindling medicine supplies.
According to the Food and Drug Administration, there are around 300 medications in limited supply in the US for conditions ranging from asthma to cancer, and the situation is expected to get worse.
“There’s a dire drug shortage hitting New York and the nation right now,” Schumer said at a Midtown press conference.
“Our doctors and our patients are near panic because of the loss of these pills.”
He listed a number of causes for the predicament, such as certain producers’ lack of access to chemical components and a deficient system for alerting consumers to impending shortages.
The FDA has decided to permit imports from China due to the lack of medications like cisplatin, which is used to treat a variety of diseases.
By “maximizing” medicine imports, bolstering home production, and fostering regional sharing, according to Schumer, the FDA must do more.
According to Schumer, drug shortages increased by 30% between 2021 and 2022, and the decreases are getting worse.
According to Schumer, Congress should, among other things, increase incentives for domestic medication manufacturing and improve the government’s capacity to foresee shortages.
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