Changes sought to combat drug, vaccine shortages

Flu vaccine delays and shortages of drugs and diagnostic agents are triggering calls for changes in distribution and more public health system involvement.

By Victoria Stagg Elliott, AMNews staff. Dec. 24/31, 2001.

San Francisco -- It was the flu season without vaccine. Doctors, if they could place an order, were quoted double and triple prices, and then the vaccine arrived late, or not at all.

There were offers of the vaccine for $200 per vial, 10 times the regular price, cash, to be delivered at night.

And grocery stores vaccinated thousands of healthy individuals, while physicians couldn't get any vaccine for their sickest patients.

That was the flu season of 2000. And it wasn't supposed to happen again. But the resulting steps taken to prevent its repeat have focused additional attention on other difficulties with the pharmaceutical pipeline. More often, physicians are facing shortages of several everyday drugs and diagnostics -- and asking for solutions to what is increasingly being viewed as a systemic problem.

It is in regard to flu shot supplies, though, that the discourse began.

In the past year, the AMA, other medical societies and government agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have met with a wide range of stakeholders -- including drug manufacturers and mass vaccinators.

"We remember last year all too well," said AMA Trustee Ronald Davis, MD. "We believe we've made significant progress in improving the situation."

AMA staff received fewer phone calls this year from physicians complaining about the flu vaccine situation. Some doctors even received the vaccine they ordered as early as September. By year's end, manufacturers had made 87 million doses available, 12 million more than last year. [...]