Life-Saving Cancer Drug for Kids Low in Supply After Pharma Companies Stopped Production

A shortage of life-saving cancer drugs for kids, called Vincristine, has been impacting patients, doctors and hospitals across the U.S. long before the supply chain issues were problematic due to the pandemic.

In a report on CBS News, journalist Bill Whitaker talked to patients, their parents and doctors about their problems with acquiring Vincristine, a very important and useful life-saving cancer drug for children with leukemia. This was considered a low-cost medication, amounting to just $5 per dose, but it was a very effective treatment.

Mom Cyndi Valenta said that she didn't understand why a vital drug for kids with cancer was short in supply. Valenta's son Jonathan, has been trying to manage an aggressive form of leukemia for many years. When there was no alternative drug for Vincristine, she and many other parents in the same boat had to scramble back and forth at different resources to find the medication.

This was in 2019 when Jonathan was still in the middle of his chemotherapy. He has since been in remission. However, Whitaker recently unraveled the real reason for the low supply.

Vincristine Not Profitable for Pharmas

In his expose on "60 Minutes," Whitaker's interviewed guests revealed that pharma companies manufacturing Vinchristine made a business decision to stop production because the drug was not profitable.

Ross Day, a former director of a health services company that negotiates medicines for hospitals with pharmaceutical industries, said that it might seem like a misstep in the business decision because these companies are not operating at a loss. However, Bill Simmons, a former generic drug executive, pointed out that pharma companies are also not charities.

Day and Simmons went through a diagram to explain how the acquisition of medications works. In Vincristine's case, the manufacturers ended up raking just a fraction of the cost because of the middlemen and distributors. Thus, from a business standpoint, it was the "least profitable drug" the industry experts said.

However, many families pushed back on the pharma companies when word got out that production for the life-saving cancer drugs for kids will soon end. A petition was launched to appeal to the government to ensure that this doesn't happen.

The appeal received more than 214,000 signatures, prompting the pharma companies to walk back on their earlier decision to stop production after lawmakers approved the Mitigating Emergency Drug Shortages (MEDS) Act.

Drug Shortages at Risk Again

However, another looming low supply of vital drugs could become another problem for the U.S. government. According to the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, the recent closure of a California plant by Teva, one of the largest generic drug makers in the world, has cut off the supply of 24 kinds of generic sterile injectable drugs and five essential medications in the market by as much as 15 percent.

The California plant had to shut down in May 2022 because of various breaches of operations that may have contaminated the supply. In fact, over 2.5 million of these medications were recalled in October 2021 for the possible presence of molds. Some of these are treatments for schizophrenia, cancer, arthritis, pediatric diabetes, and ailments in muscles.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the End Drug Shortages Alliance (EDSA) have been working with other manufacturers to double up on their production of these essential drugs. They have also recommended wholesalers handle their supply and distribution carefully to ensure that the medications will remain readily available.