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Drug recently shown to reduce coronavirus death risk could run out, experts warn | Science | AAAS
As if we didn't have enough problems:
This week’s report that dexamethasone, a commonly used corticosteroid, reduces death rates of COVID-19 by up to one-third was greeted with enthusiasm around the globe.
It also raised a question: Will there be enough of the medication? So far, doctors are not reporting problems getting dexamethasone for their patients. And as many news stories have pointed out, dexamethasone is off-patent, cheap, and relatively abundant.
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But that doesn’t mean there won’t be shortages, says Stephen Schondelmeyer, director of the Pharmaceutical Research in Management and Economics Institute at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. “Even though this is an old drug that’s been around a long time, I think people saying that it’s commonly available … spoke too soon, without looking at the data,” he says. Since the trial findings came out, there has been “a degree of irrational exuberance,” about dexamethasone, Schondelmeyer says. “We are already seeing hoarding behaviors and lack of availability of the product because of it,” he adds.
“Hoarding and speculative procurement appear to have already started,” confirms Emer Cooke, head of regulation of medicines and other health technologies at the World Health Organization (WHO). But she says it’s “probably too early to say if there will be a global shortage.”
The situation could become especially dire for the injectable version of the drug, which some physicians say is the preferred formulation and is more complicated to produce than oral dexamethasone. One major Indian manufacturer of intravenous dexamethasone, Cadila Healthcare, has repeatedly gotten in trouble with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for serious problems in its production process. According to a letter from the agency, the company said in October 2019 that it would stop producing injectable drugs for the United States.
The trial that identified dexamethasone’s potential benefit, named Recovery, included more than 6400 patients in the United Kingdom, 2104 of whom received the medication. Its outcome “offers miraculous hope that a dose of a commonplace medication might do what we all want it to do: Help people survive,” says Lewis Kaplan, a surgeon at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine and president of the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM). WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus praised the findings as a “lifesaving scientific breakthrough.” The U.K. National Health Service has already incorporated the drug into its standard of care for COVID-19 and the country issued restrictions on exports of dexamethasone. Demand appears to be surging worldwide.
(more)
=======================================================================
The light at the end of the tunnel is looking more like the headlight of an oncoming train.
As if we didn't have enough problems:
This week’s report that dexamethasone, a commonly used corticosteroid, reduces death rates of COVID-19 by up to one-third was greeted with enthusiasm around the globe.
It also raised a question: Will there be enough of the medication? So far, doctors are not reporting problems getting dexamethasone for their patients. And as many news stories have pointed out, dexamethasone is off-patent, cheap, and relatively abundant.
Related
a health care worker holds a bottle of dexamethasone
A cheap steroid is the first drug shown to reduce death in COVID-19 patients
hydroxychloroquine pills
FDA just gave a thumbs down to Trump’s favorite COVID-19 drugs
gloved hands holding a bag of blood
Could a global ‘observatory’ of blood help stop the next pandemic?
See all of our coverage of the coronavirus outbreak
But that doesn’t mean there won’t be shortages, says Stephen Schondelmeyer, director of the Pharmaceutical Research in Management and Economics Institute at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. “Even though this is an old drug that’s been around a long time, I think people saying that it’s commonly available … spoke too soon, without looking at the data,” he says. Since the trial findings came out, there has been “a degree of irrational exuberance,” about dexamethasone, Schondelmeyer says. “We are already seeing hoarding behaviors and lack of availability of the product because of it,” he adds.
“Hoarding and speculative procurement appear to have already started,” confirms Emer Cooke, head of regulation of medicines and other health technologies at the World Health Organization (WHO). But she says it’s “probably too early to say if there will be a global shortage.”
The situation could become especially dire for the injectable version of the drug, which some physicians say is the preferred formulation and is more complicated to produce than oral dexamethasone. One major Indian manufacturer of intravenous dexamethasone, Cadila Healthcare, has repeatedly gotten in trouble with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for serious problems in its production process. According to a letter from the agency, the company said in October 2019 that it would stop producing injectable drugs for the United States.
The trial that identified dexamethasone’s potential benefit, named Recovery, included more than 6400 patients in the United Kingdom, 2104 of whom received the medication. Its outcome “offers miraculous hope that a dose of a commonplace medication might do what we all want it to do: Help people survive,” says Lewis Kaplan, a surgeon at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine and president of the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM). WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus praised the findings as a “lifesaving scientific breakthrough.” The U.K. National Health Service has already incorporated the drug into its standard of care for COVID-19 and the country issued restrictions on exports of dexamethasone. Demand appears to be surging worldwide.
(more)
=======================================================================
The light at the end of the tunnel is looking more like the headlight of an oncoming train.