Shortage of an important chemo drug, implications for the treatment of cancer patients

An important anti-cancer chemo drug will be available until at least the end of September very limited available in the Netherlands. Here’s what the Medicines Evaluation Board (MEB) says. It is expected that the treatment of 500 to 1,000 people will have to be changed necessarily.

The drug etoposide is used to treat about thirty types of cancer, including lung cancer, testicular cancer, leukemia, ovarian cancer and lymphatic cancer.

Problems with the production and distribution of the drug have caused a global shortage, say the only two manufacturers that supply the chemo drug. The MEB has informed the European Medicines Agency EMA of the impending shortage. The EMA says they are investigating whether supplies can come to the Netherlands from other European countries in the short term.

“Inquiries have been made to the companies that make the medicine, but they don’t want to say anything about the reason for the shortage,” said Nicole Hunfeld, chair of the national committee for medicine shortages and a hospital pharmacist at Erasmus MC in Rotterdam.

“We know that both suppliers are not able to deliver. “In previous cases we have seen it take months before production can be restarted.”

Problems with the supply of chemo drugs are becoming more common, but the current acute shortage is low, according to Hunfeld. “This is the first time that a shortage has affected so many patients. That is very bad, and it is also worrying for doctors and pharmacists. They have to make sure that everyone gets A different treatment schedule is not easy to arrange.”

If the Committee for Medicine Shortages does not take measures, etoposide will not be available anywhere in the Netherlands within two weeks. “That is why we are now trying to extend it as far as possible with other treatments and therapies. We do this by changing the order, by making the shops- Medicines prepare other preparations and the doctors must inform the patients correctly,” said Hunfeld.

According to Martine Chamuleau, internist-hematologist at Amsterdam UMC, it is important for doctors to look at the possible side effects of other medicines. “Other regimens may not be suitable for some patients with reduced kidney function or nerve pain.”

Due to the shortage of etoposide, the National Medicines Coordination Center (LCG). advice on treatment modified. The two suppliers of the drug have announced that they will be able to supply the Netherlands again in six weeks, at the end of September.

The shortage of medicines in the Netherlands was higher than ever last year. Research by the pharmaceutical group KNMP shows that 5 million of the 13 million drug users in the Netherlands have experienced the effect.

Due to the growing shortage of medicine, some people are seeing: forced to collect medicines from pharmacies across the border that are no longer available in the Netherlands.