Lawmakers say the worsening drug shortage in the United States is hurting the American health care system and called for shifting more manufacturing from China to the United States to help alleviate the problem during a Senate hearing Wednesday.
The number of active drug shortages in the U.S. reached a peak of 295 by the end of 2022. Between 2021 and 2022 new drug shortages increased by nearly 30 percent, said Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
The shortages touch all kinds of drugs — from everyday hospital needs like saline or anesthetics to critical cancer treatments — and has forced physicians and pharmacists to make tough decisions, with committee witnesses describing being forced to decide whether to treat a young baby with neuroblastoma or an elderly woman with lung cancer due to limited drug supplies.
