Gouging 101 spotted by Dr Judy Stone

Summer is Lyme Disease Season. The Price Of The Drug To Treat It Just Exploded. By Maryn McKenna If you’ve been reading for a while, you might remember someposts about nationwide shortages of drugs. The Food and Drug Administration was concerned, and so were very senior physicians working in infectious disease, cancer, everyday emergency medicine and even veterinary care.The crisis faded from view, as they do. So it wasn’t much noticed that back in March, the American Academy of Pediatrics warned of an FDA alert over an apparent shortage of doxycycline, an old and inexpensive drug that is used mostly for uncomplicated infections such as sexually transmitted diseases and acne. It is also used, though, as the first treatment for a new case of Lyme disease — and that more than anything has sparked alarm.Lyme is a problem mostly in the northeastern US and  also the upper Midwest (though other little-noticed tickborne infections occur in the southeast and on the West Coast). Maine is one of Lyme’s hotspots, and last week the Bangor Daily News reported:“We’ve had availability, but the price is going up and that’s obviously a concern, too,” state epidemiologist Stephen Sears said. “And, sooner or later, if it’s getting to be short nationally, it’s going to get short here, just as other drugs have.”He said the department has heard Doxycycline’s price is now five to 10 times higher than it used to be, but he said that i...
Source: PharmaGossip - Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Source Type: blogs