Fragile antibiotic supply leads to shortages worldwide - Action News
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Health

Fragile antibiotic supply leads to shortages worldwide

Shortages of some life-saving antibiotics are putting more patients at risk, according to a new report.

Shortages of key antibiotics a growing global problem, a non-profit medicines group says

A surgery nurse prepares a syringe during procedures to clean the wound of an amputee patient with MRSA (Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus Aureus). (Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters)

Shortages of some life-savingantibiotics are putting growing numbers of patients at risk andfuelling the evolution of "superbugs" that do not respond tomodern medicines, according to a new report.

The non-profit Access to Medicine Foundation (AMF) said Thursday there was an emerging crisis in the global anti-infectivesmarket as fragile drug supply chains reliant on just a few bigsuppliers come close to collapse.

The result is shortages of products likepiperacillin-tazobactam, an antibiotic combination usedintravenously in intensive care, which has been in tight supplysince a 2016 explosion at a Chinese pharmaceutical ingredientsfactory.

Another antibiotic, benzathine penicillin G (BPG), facesshortages in at least 39 countries, including Germany andBrazil.

BPG is a key drug for preventing transmission of syphilisfrom mother to child and the shortage frustrated Brazil'sefforts to bring a disease outbreak under control between 2012and 2015. BPG is also used to fight rheumatic heart disease.

'Things are getting worse'

In absence of the right drugs, patients may take lesseffective or poor quality medicines that increase the risk ofantimicrobial resistance developing.

"Things are getting worse because the market is not fixingthe problem, despite the expansion in the need for suchspecialist antibiotics," said AMF Executive Director JayasreeIyer.



Global demand for antibiotics has grown by two-thirds since2000, driven by population growth and the need for medicines tofight 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 havevery low profit margins particularly compared to modern drugsfor diseases like cancer offering manufacturers littleincentive to invest in new production facilities.

The rise in shortages has gone hand in hand with a wave ofconsolidation among the companies making generic drugswhichrange from global pharmaceutical giants to smaller firms incountries such as India reducing the number of suppliersmaking individual product lines.

Sporadic drug shortages are not unique to antibiotics.Recently, for example, there has been a worldwide shortage ofMylan's market-leading EpiPen emergency allergy device.

But antibiotic shortages can have especially direconsequences, since doctors have to resort to sub-optimaltreatments that are less efficient at killing specificpathogens, leading to the rise of resistant bacteria orso-called superbugs.

An estimated 70 per cent of bacteria are already resistant toat least one antibiotic that is commonly used to treat them,making the evolution of such superbugs one of the biggestthreats facing medicine today.