Another antibiotic crisis: fragile supply
leads to shortages
Send a link to a friend
[May 31, 2018]
By Ben Hirschler
LONDON (Reuters) - Shortages of some
life-saving antibiotics are putting growing numbers of patients at risk
and fuelling the evolution of "superbugs" that do not respond to modern
medicines, according to a new report on Thursday.
The non-profit Access to Medicine Foundation (AMF) said there was an
emerging crisis in the global anti-infectives market as fragile drug
supply chains - reliant on just a few big suppliers - come close to
collapse.
The result is shortages of products like piperacillin-tazobactam, an
antibiotic combination used intravenously in intensive care, which has
been in tight supply since a 2016 explosion at a Chinese pharmaceutical
ingredients factory.
Another antibiotic, benzathine penicillin G (BPG), faces shortages in at
least 39 countries, including Germany and Brazil.
BPG is a key drug for preventing transmission of syphilis from mother to
child and the shortage frustrated Brazil's efforts to bring a disease
outbreak under control between 2012 and 2015. BPG is also used to fight
rheumatic heart disease.
![](../images/ads/current/makeitsew_sda_PROM_2018.png)
In absence of the right drugs, patients may take less effective or poor
quality medicines that increase the risk of antimicrobial resistance
developing.
"Things are getting worse because the market is not fixing the problem,
despite the expansion in the need for such specialist antibiotics," said
AMF Executive Director Jayasree Iyer.
Global demand for antibiotics has grown by two-thirds since 2000, driven
by population growth and the need for medicines to fight infectious
diseases in low- and middle-income countries.
Most antibiotics are cheap, off-patent generic medicines, which is good
for affordability. But that also means they have very low profit margins
- particularly compared to modern drugs for diseases like cancer -
offering manufacturers little incentive to invest in new production
facilities.
[to top of second column]
|
![](../images/053118pics/news_v33.jpg)
A technician stocks the shelves of a pharmacy in Kentucky, February
2018. REUTERS/Bryan Woolston/File Photo
![](../images/ads/current/richardson_lda_052118.png)
The rise in shortages has gone hand in hand with a wave of
consolidation among the companies making generic drugs - which range
from global pharmaceutical giants to smaller firms in countries such
as India - reducing the number of suppliers making individual
product lines.
Sporadic drug shortages are not unique to antibiotics. Recently, for
example, there has been a worldwide shortage of Mylan's <MYL.O>
market-leading EpiPen emergency allergy device.
But antibiotic shortages can have especially dire consequences,
since doctors have to resort to sub-optimal treatments that are less
efficient at killing specific pathogens, leading to the rise of
resistant bacteria or so-called superbugs.
An estimated 70 percent of bacteria are already resistant to at
least one antibiotic that is commonly used to treat them, making the
evolution of such superbugs one of the biggest threats facing
medicine today.
(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Mark Potter)
[© 2018 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2018 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
![](../images/ads/current/brickey_lda_061314.png)
![](../images/ads/current/ldn_medical_directory_small2.png) |