Chemo Drug Shortage Puts Cancer Patients at Risk

(NEW YORK) — A shortage of Taxol, an intravenous chemotherapy workhorse for ovarian, breast, lung, and colon cancers, demonstrates once again how vulnerable U.S. hospitals and clinics are to an increasingly unreliable pharmaceutical supply chain. The shortfalls continue to leave patients at risk. Paclitaxel, the generic version of Taxol, joins 196 other drugs on a shortage list compiled by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists in Bethesda, Md. Although no one has been able to quantify the number of lives jeopardized by the shortages, the lengthy list underscores that the country is in the midst of a “public health crisis of drugs overall,” said Cynthia Reilly, director of the group’s practice development division.