Shortages of prescription drugs occurring more frequently

"One reason often cited is an inability to access raw ingredients -- many of which are produced in countries such as China and India."

BINGO. They've come under greater scrutiny of their supply chain quality assurance...........and have failed. Many of these API (active pharmaceutical ingredient) suppliers have been tested/inspected and have not met standards. Even drugs that are finished in North America get their APIs from these countries. Manufacturing drugs outside the US have had a bit of a free pass with inspections in the past. For instance a drug manufacturer in France has it's plant inspected by the FDA maybe every 7-10 years, while the US manufacturing is inspected daily or weekly. Some US manufacturing plants have FDA inspectors onsite every day. Health Canada should be as diligent.

They have been given a long leash for a long time for a reason. Cheap outsourcing. Regulations are not keeping pace as the are not effecting domestic markets. In this instance regulations are now being used to apply pressure to outside markets to secure market monopolies in domestic markets. These are full blown patient wars going on, example:

http://www.thepharmaletter.com/file/330 ... spute.html

Domestic supply is simply collateral damage.



This is why we need a national drug program.