When Doctors Have to Play God over Drug Shortages

January 7, 2015

(The Fiscal Times) – Four years ago, just before Christmas, my hospital ran out of cytarabine, an essential drug used to treat and cure certain kinds of acute leukemia. This drug was suddenly in short supply across the nation. At Duke, we had enough for about 10 days based upon our historical usage, but after that we could no longer treat those already on therapy or begin treatment for newly diagnosed patients. And we couldn’t ask other hospitals in the region to “lend” us some since they were in the same boat.