Widespread critical medication shortages will be the next big crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jeremy Samuel Faust, MD, an emergency physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, wrote in an opinion piece for The Atlantic.
Dr. Faust said the number of drugs in shortages are "shocking developments in a rich country," and outlined what he thinks the government should do to fix the problem.
First, the U.S. needs to improve data collection to track how drug manufacturing capacity stacks up against demand, and the government should motivate drugmakers and their suppliers to accelerate the production of needed drugs, Dr. Faust wrote.
The FDA should require drugmakers to disclose the companies that make their ingredients since that disclosure now is voluntary. If the FDA required suppliers of ingredients to release product information, the FDA could identify production hiccups early and guarantee that ingredients are reserved for medical use, according to Dr. Faust.
If the U.S. allowed hospitals to report undersupply of medications, that would help public officials know when the government should step in to direct deliveries, and it could prioritize areas in the most need of drugs and anticipate shortages before they become critical.
The White House should use the Defense Production Act to direct drugmakers to sell drugs to hospitals or regions most in need, Dr. Faust wrote. HHS could temporarily offer higher payments for drugs, including generics, to incentivize drugmakers to produce drugs more quickly.
Lastly, Dr. Faust said the government should replenish the strategic national stockpile now with drugs being used to treat COVID-19 since the pandemic will likely last for many more months before a vaccine is available.
"If we can’t provide medications that make what we do effective, all our efforts will be for naught," Dr. Faust wrote.
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