Legislation on Senate Floor This Week to Combat Drug Shortages

There are 14 life saving cancer drugs that are in short supply according to Senator Kiersten Gillibrand who is urging congress to pass legislation to combat drug shortages. New Federal Legislation is on the Senate floor this week that would require all drug makers to give the FDA a warning if there was a shortage of drugs. Manufacturers who fail to announce a shortage of drugs means that the drug companies would be penalized. This year alone there has been over 100 drug shortages. Senator Gillibrand says that not passing this legislation would be putting lives at risk because cancer patients need these medications to help treat their diseases. Gillibrand also said that no one should have to worry whether or not they have access to these medications. Below is a list of medications that are in short supply, put out by Senator Gillibrand's office:

Pediatric Cancer Drug		Treatment/Management for Disease
1	Daunorubicin	Acute myeloid leukemia (AML);  Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)
2	Leucovorin	Childhood leukemia
3	Ifosfamide	Ewing’s sarcoma (bone tumor that affects children); osteosarcoma (bone cancer); neuroblastoma  (common form of cancer in infants)
4	Thiotepa	Breast and ovary cancer; bone marrow transplant; leukemia
5	Doxorubicin	Bladder, breast, lung, stomach and ovarian cancer; Hodgkin’s lymphoma (cancer from white blood cells); non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma;  ALL; bone sarcomas; neuroblastoma; Wilms’ tumor (kidney cancer that affects children)
6	Mesna	Protects bladder wall from harmful effects of cancer drugs such as cyclophosphamide (used in treating aplastic anemia) and Ifosfamide (see column #3)
7	Vinblastine	Langerhans’ cell histiocytosis (children with too many white blood cells); Hodgkin’s lymphoma
8	Paclitaxel	sarcomas (cancer in certain tissues such as bone or muscle)
9	Sodium Bicarbonate	Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma; ALL; osteosarcoma (protects bladder wall from high doses of methotrexate); tumor lysis Syndrome, (series of metabolic disturbances that occur after  cancer treatment)
Cancer Drug		Treatment/Management for Disease
10	Liposomal Doxorubicin	Advanced ovarian and breast cancer; AIDS-related Karposi’s sarcoma; myeloma (bone marrow cancer)
11	Floxuridine	Colon or stomach cancer that has spread to the liver
12	Theracys BCG	bladder cancer
13	Mechlorethamine	Hodgkin’s disease; lymphosarcoma (cancer in the lymph nodes); certain leukemias
14	Mitomycin	bladder, stomach and pancreas cancer