U.S. cancer drugs shortage has doctors scrambling

Debra Sherman and Julie Steenhuysen Reuters 06/07/2011 18:07

Cancer medicines desperately needed by sick children and adults are in short supply, undermining the ability of U.S. doctors to administer treatments, top oncologists warned this week.

Many drugs are scarce because there is no incentive for drugmakers to manufacture low-cost generics, which have slim profit margins for pharmaceutical companies. Doctors do not expect that equation to change any time soon, making them scramble to find acceptable alternatives, or to ration or delay treatment when they cannot.

Generic chemotherapy drugs are in particularly tight supply at the nation's hospitals, including mainstay cancer treatments such as cisplatin, doxorubicin, cytarabine and leucovorin.

"These are chestnuts. These are not old-fashioned drugs. They remain incredibly important drugs which serve as the backbone for treating many of the most common and treatable cancers," said Dr. Robert Mayer of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and a past president of American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) which held its annual meeting in Chicago this week.

Cisplatin is used to treat testicular, bladder and ovarian cancers that have spread. The drug, also used to treat lung cancers, is sold under multiple brand names, originally by Bristol-Myers Squibb. A generic form is sold by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, among others.

Doxorubicin, also available under multiple brands and as a generic from Teva and others, is used to treat non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, multiple myeloma, acute leukemias and other cancers.

Cytarabine, produced by Hospira Inc and others, is used to treat certain types of leukemia. Leucovorin, also sold by Teva, is used along with certain chemotherapy drugs to treat colorectal, head and neck and other cancers.