Pharmaceutical drug shortages are multifaceted and complex problems that affect all aspects of health care, including patients, caregivers, healthcare providers, third-party payers, the pharmaceutical industry, and regulators. Drug shortages have increased significantly since 2000, which cause increases in healthcare costs and compromised patient care. New government regulations have led the U....

This paper examines the persistent food shortages in island of Crete under Venetian rule (1204–1669) through prism monetary system territories and combination with other economic policies empire. From available sources analysis, it seems that Venice which prioritised security metropolis, financial support to elites, elite-favouring taxation were contradictory self-defeating. In particular, stru...

Acute and chronic shortages of various pharmaceuticals and particularly of sterile injectable products are being reported on a global scale, prompting evaluation of more effective strategies to manage current shortages and development of new, high-quality pharmaceutical products to mitigate the risk of potential future shortages. Oncology drugs such as liposomal doxorubicin and 5-fluorouracil r...

Indonesia has been afflicted by an economic crisis since July 1997. The economic crisis was preceded by a long drought associated with El Nino. The result has been a decline in food production, especially rice. In the eastern part of the country, especially in Irian Jaya, there was food insecurity during the early stages of the economic crisis. When the crisis escalated to become an economic, s...

The Drug Shortage Program at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is a division of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), one of the five centers within FDA. The four other centers include the Center for Devices and Radiological Health, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, and Center for Veterinary Medicine. At the Drug Short...

Background: Orphan drugs (ODs) are pharmaceuticals manufactured for rare conditions that affect less than 200,000 people in the US. ODs are therefore produced in small quantities to meet sparse demand. Since 2010, OD shortages have become frequent, but no comprehensive, quantitative studies exist. Objective: The objective of this study is to assess the rates of OD shortages per therapeutic clas...

One of the grand challenges for society is global security in food and nutrition. The ‘‘perfect storm’’ metaphor has been used by Sir John Beddington to describe the scenario that wemight be heading for, with simultaneous shortages for food, water, and energy within the foreseeable future. This Select highlights the need for a truly multipronged approach across scientific disciplines and countr...

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in various food supplies have important health impacts, but are not as devastating as malnutrition and, perhaps, obesity. POPs should be controlled and the Stockholm Convention is having an accelerating effect on the global decline of POP manufacture and use. Reservoirs from previous misuses are much larger than current manufacture and efforts should be dire...

Second-line drugs (SLDs) are essential for treating multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB* and XDR TB†). Drug shortages, in which supplies of all clinically interchangeable versions of a given Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-regulated drug become inadequate to meet actual or projected user demand, have been well-documented in many areas of medicine; for seve...