- cross-posted to:
- usa@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- usa@lemmy.ml
Something very very wrong is happening with pharmaceuticals all around the US right now. No one is saying anything and every organization is pointing fingers at each other, but there is a massive shortage of a huge range medication, ranging from Tylenol, Zyrtec, and Advil all the way to antibiotics, Adderall, Chemotherapy drugs, and Diabetes medication. People with debilitating illnesses and disorders like Type 1 Diabetes and ADHD are being left high and dry without any answers other then pharmacies saying that they are on “backorder” (I.e. They’re all out).
Its not just one company either, for example in the case of Adderall-Dextroamphetamine, in a worst case scenario it can be substituted with other drugs of a completely different makeup such as Vyvanse or Ritalin which are produced by different companies. The one problem is that they are ALL out of stock. On top of this, because a vast majority of these drugs are held in copyright, many of them do not have generic forms, and other companies are not legally allowed to try to develop them.
Something is going very wrong and it seems like the US pharmaceutical industry is collapsing. I’m very scared what this means for people that rely on medication. Diabetes? Hormones for transitioning? Heart medication? Chemotherapy? What happens to those people?
Look at the link… 233 medications already are gone.
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My partner recently got a prescription for fucking salt water (4% sterile saline solution) which she couldn’t get at any of our local pharmacies. I can imagine a couple reasons for some issues but this seems more like a complete supply chain collapse.
Fuck patents capitalist stupidity
Can’t wait for the western media to blame China
Wonderful, the cope is delicious
looks like there nearly as many shortages listed before the pandemic; 210 in late 2019: https://web.archive.org/web/20190829140928/https://www.ashp.org/drug-shortages/current-shortages/drug-shortages-list?page=CurrentShortages
Not arguing that the current situation is a disgrace, though. Private industry can’t provide for people’s needs and we’re not allowed any alternatives.
Granted that is true, but shortages of uncommon medicines happen in a private care based system where medicine has to be profitable . However what is even more concerning is that basic pharmaceuticals like Tylenol, antibiotics, Adderall/stimulants, morphine, and anesthetic are in shortage. That is a terrifying reality.
But Cuba guys! Cuba is evil and has no meds tho. This shortage must be the communists’ fault.
Artificial scarcity to jack up prices more?
Maybe, buts there’s no supplies to jack up at least publicly. All the pharmacies across the US are just empty.
Oh shit, what will we do without our Acetaminophen suppositories, vallium anal gel, haldol and ketamine injections, prescription strength (600mg tabs) ibprofen, ativan, or tramadol? Oh, I know; perhaps get some productive shit done instead of wasting our money on a 3-in-1 markup scheme for basic pain pills, taking dangerous medicines that the industry has successfully kept socially acceptable despite the damage and fallout from them, or staring blankly at the wall from various hard drugs they successfully psyop’d us into accepting as genuine medicines.
Jokes aside though, there are some real assets on this list that are essential medicines:
Albuterol
Amoxicillin
Generic Adderall
lidocaine
morphine
sterile water
no doubt others whose significance is beyond my knowledge
This isn’t good. Some of these can be swapped out for other medicines but others there’s just no way around their absence, such as not having sterile water for injections.
Oh, I know; perhaps get some productive shit done instead of wasting our money on a 3-in-1 markup scheme for basic pain pills
Unfortunately, I can’t really get around using them. I have an episodic genetic condition that causes extreme pain, inflammation, and fever at the same time during an episode. It has sometimes gotten so bad that I had to go to the ER for morphine because I couldn’t handle the pain, and a few times, the pain caused bradycardia and I lost consciousness due to hypoxia in the ER. I use those pain pills to get through the pain when it isn’t as bad. Without them, I’d have to get morphine (which I really don’t want) injected every time I have an episode, which is not only bad for health, but also extremely expensive here in the US.
You misunderstand me, I was disrespecting the drugs whose risks outweigh their benefit. I specifically named morphine as a vital drug in which a society being without is problematic. Morphine and other prescription pain killers (aside from Oxycotin) are essential in a society despite the recent backlash against the abuse of these medicines. What causes addiction and abuse above all are the material conditions which give reason and stimulation for habits to form and for genetic triggers to activate. The 3 for 1 markup was in reference to the 600MG Prescription only Ibprofen, when one can simply buy the over the counter 200MGs far cheaper and with no prescription. I hope your medicines aren’t currently nor end up on in the future this list or any list like it. Stay strong.
Ah, in that case, I agree with you. I also have medications to stop the episodes from happening in the first place and they have other issues. Some company was somehow able to get a patent on it, suddenly increasing the price by 200 times. It’s gone down since then, but still far more expensive than it used to be. Insurance doesn’t cover it, so we have to pay full price. Each episode is a massive load on my body, and they cause lots of damage to all of my organs that takes a while to recover from. During episodes, protein crystal deposits can also start forming in the blood vessels, which can be fatal if it happens too often. There are also very fun effects if episodes keep happening, such as anhedonia (inability to feel happiness), and sweating blood. I literally rely upon this medication (which works really well and the only side effect is that I can’t eat grapefruit) to avoid a painful death and these capitalists as always think their profits are far more important than some filthy proletarian.
That sounds horrible. I agree wholeheartedly, they jack up the prices as if they don’t manufacture life saving mechanisms, as if they sell teddy bears or luxury watches. I wish I had more than words for you, no one should have to be in such a situation.
You do also realize that anal based delivery of medication is vital in patients that cannot metabolize drugs correctly right? Or patients with a damaged mouth, esophagus, stomach, or intestines? Or patients that have been intubated? Or patients in comas? Suppositories are an extremely important delivery method for many medications and patients, especially in situations where using an IV might not be possible, or ill advised. For example in the situation of the Valium rectal cream you mentioned, how possible do you think it would be to get a patient in an active seizure to swallow a Valium pill?
Also 600ml of painkillers are not your everyday drug store variety, those are purposefully made to that high strength so that they can still be very effective, meaning that a doctor will not have to prescribe or use opioids or more dangerous painkillers, which may not be possible to prescribe if the person is a recovering addict or pregnant.
Ketamine is also a common surgical anesthetic and “knockout drug”.
All of the drugs you mentioned are extremely valuable and required daily in hospitals, and all of their shortages at once are terrifying.
As I said this is a bad situation but thankfully some of these medications can be swapped out while this crisis is happening, such as Diazapam for Clonazapam for example.
This is one of those situations where what we have is what we have but more needs to be done. Seizures have always existed, I am sure countries which aren’t heavily influenced by the pharmaceutical industry here have other options to treat seizures which are healthier for the patient without sacrificing anti-convulsivity. Especially when medicines with such risks are managed by the never-ending profit class who continually manufacture uses for these medicines causing addiction, misuse, and side effect (primary effect?) related issues throughout our society.
I do concur though, diazapam and other benzodiazapines appear to be the go-to medicines for seizure control, as well as panic attacks, mariuana intoxication, and other issues. This though is due to our overreliance upon these medicines whose risks have been experienced and documented since their widespread usage, not to their supreme use value within this scope, so for this reason I will leave it on the list with benzos in general as the first list within the joking format was listing medicines we should do away with in time which is where benzos belong imo. I do concur it is a problem that diazapam is low as it’s needed though.
Diazapam and benzodiazapines in general are drugs which carry risks which outweigh the benefits (when used outside of an emergency room and considering their issues outside of this scope I doubt their risk level within this setting as well, although I lack sufficient knowledge to say for certain)
The 600MG tablets are nothing more than x3 200MG tablets combined into 1 medication. It is a method of extracting more profit from a commonly used medication. Can you tell me, what is the difference between a prescription for 600MG Ibprofen and a bottle of 200MG tabs over the counter besides the quantity, dosage per tablet, and of course 1 is chargeable to insurance or out of pocket for a higher charge than the over the counter variant? Is this medication a hybrid similar to Vicodin is a mixture of acetaminophen and Hydrocodone? If it has no material difference, then what are the economic implications?
Ketamine being used as a drug for depression caused by the material conditions of capitalism is what I was alluding to in my criticism, not it’s use value within a hospital setting. The same goes for Fentanyl. Thankfully again there are alternatives to this, there are many other knockout drugs still available. I would be more concerned about this specifically if 2 or 3 anesthetic stables were missing, but with it added to the list it aids in increasing the heaviness of the scenario.
I agree, the sudden loss of so many vital medications is highly alarming and signals a problem in the production process originating no doubt in the management of the industry by the capitalist class. I really hope these problems subside, things would get very bad very fast here if the medicines became absent on an even larger scale.
