Cancer patients' lives threatened

WASHINGTON (AP):

Unprecedented drug shortages are threatening the lives of cancer patients and other seriously ill people, and the Obama administration's plan to tackle them is but a small step toward solving a complex problem.

President Barack Obama ordered the Food and Drug Administration yesterday to take new steps to send out early warnings about looming shortages and try to avert them.

"Even though the FDA has successfully prevented an actual crisis, this is one of those slow-rolling problems that could end up resulting in disaster for patients and health-care facilities all over the country," Obama said.

There's already a crisis in the eyes of many frustrated doctors and hospitals who are scrambling for supplies of medicines ranging from common chemotherapies, to anesthetics used in surgery, to the electrolytes that are crucial to IV feeding in intensive care. Fifteen deaths have been blamed on shortages. Patients have had treatments delayed, surgeries cancelled, or had to use second-choice medications. Hospitals are reporting price-gouging, such as a drug that usually costs $26 being offered for $1,200.