Monday, June 21, 2010

This really SUCCinylcholines?

As I came in to the OR this morning it looked like a feeding frenzy at the pharmacy. Each CRNA and MDA were in line hoping to get some meds. There is a nationwide shortage of propofol, fentanyl, etomidate, succinylcholine and many of the other drugs that are used for anesthesia. These are all the generic cheap ones! I had to find out why so I called the main distrubution pharmacy. Since these drugs are generic, the profit margin in minimal and the liability risk is high, so there are not many companies making them in the US. In fact, most of the drugs are imported. The FDA has cracked down on inspecting the drugs but since the FDA is so slow, there is a huge delay getting them in to the country. On top of it, the FDA has decided that all older drugs must have the same testing that the new ones do, so to sell an older drug that has worked for years, someone has to pay the billions to run all the new tests on it. Of course no one wants to, so companies are just selling what they have and really not making any more.

So, when you have to have your emergency surgery just think, Attorneys and politicians have taken away your anesthesia!

1 comment:

SeaSpray said...

Now that is a frightening thought! What if they miscalculated and you need more?