Drug Shortages Across Our Nation

Floor Speech

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Mr. BUCSHON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to raise further awareness of an issue of great importance to this legislative body and to many of our constituents: the problem of drug shortages, specifically cancer drug shortages.

As a physician, I know this has been a problem for decades, and there isn't one solution to the problem.

Let me tell you some personal stories I have heard recently. I heard this month from a family in my district with a 5-year-old son battling pre-B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

For 2\1/2\ years now, the family has been facing heartbreaking challenges, which have been made significantly worse by shortages of generic medications.

First, their son was supposed to receive cytarabine, also known as ARA-C. This is a generic chemotherapy medication the family should have been able to inject into the little boy's thigh at home, during a particularly fragile stage of their son's treatment.

Instead, the family was informed that shortages would prevent them from obtaining that form of medication, and they would need to deliver all chemotherapy through a central port intravenous line.

Repeated access to the central port line led to an infection and ultimately a 3-week hospital stay hundreds of miles from their home in Evansville, Indiana.

On top of that, the family has experienced shortages of dexamethasone, a generic corticosteroid that supports the immune system and helps the body to endure heavier rounds of chemo and blood thinners needed because of his port, and finally, even antibiotics needed when his suppressed immune system needed help.

This wasn't the first story I had heard of the troubling news about drug shortages. Earlier this summer an oncologist in my district brought to my attention the fact that his practice was short on chemotherapy drugs. Subsequently, we found out this was a nationwide issue. In fact, they were so short that they were forced to, essentially, ration the medication needed by his patients with cancer.

I was really shocked that in our country we would have to potentially ration chemotherapeutic agents due to a shortage. We subsequently found out it was due to a manufacturing issue overseas.

As a physician myself, I cannot imagine being put in a position where I might have to choose which of my patients on this day might receive lifesaving treatments.

As the Energy and Commerce Committee--of which I am a member--and other committees are considering legislation on drug shortages, let's think critically about how to enact meaningful reforms that will address the roots of these problems and allow for long-term change to mitigate chronic drug shortages.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to remember that real people are affected by these shortages every day. Our constituents and all Americans are affected by this problem.

Mr. Speaker, let's pass meaningful legislation to help resolve these chronic drug shortages.

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