Monterey, CA : FDA Approves Cancer Drugs That Were In Short Supply

I've been writing for some time about the sad state of affairs with a number of drugs becoming unavailable, and some of them are required to treat terminal diseases.  Thankfully, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) moved quickly on two drugs.  It was announced this week that the FDA will temporarily allow Johnson & Johnson to import Lipodox as a replacement for cancer drug Doxil, used to treat ovarian cancer.  Both drugs have the same active ingredient.  In addition, APP Pharmaceuticals is being allowed to make a drug to treat leukemia in children and bone cancer.  Both drugs became in extremely short supply after Ben Venue Laboratories had to shut down a plant in Ohio last November to address manufacturing problems.  These two drugs were deemed the most critical in the raft of cancer drug shortages.  Unfortunately, there are still 283 drugs which are on the shortage list.  Most of them are used to treat cancer and other serious diseases, according to the FDA.  Let's hope they can move quickly to find a solution for the other drugs that critical patients need.  Over the past two years, 15 people have died unnecessarily because of drug shortages.