Mysteriously there appears to be little shortage now in the UK. People have been shifted from one drug to another, not always successfully, and there are indications that supplies of some of those drugs are also now affected.......

However the list that Linda has brought to our attention that was published in the US reads differently from the list that appears on the EPDA website, at least it is expressed differently. As far as I can see subject to regulatory approval means a shortage, because those approvals have not yet come through. The EPDA list indicates continuing shortages in a number of countries, some through the latter half of this year, and some through 2011.

The second round of questions (additional) in the UK was not answered adequately, and was brusque and overbearing, with the odd statement here and there that they have the patients welfare to the fore........ Nothing they have done suggests this, and it is only as a result of patient pressure that they have done anything to inform patients. The last round of questions did however try and shunt the cause of the shortage onto the supplier of raw material - in the previous round of questions it was deemed to be the regulatory process itself that was at fault. MSD itself is squeaky clean and has done nothing whatsoever that it will admit to - though it's answers are so rigidly controlled that it is clear it has taken legal advice........ if so why?

So this is a company that has no control over it's supply chain, and cannot forward plan effectively enough to meet the approvals it needs to produce and distribute it's product........ yet it has been in the business of this for years..................

What looking at this situation has uncovered is a variety of sharp practice, and overwhelming disregard for other aspects of drug regulation, such as maintaining supplies, not just with MSD but also with many other companies that amounts to those companies seeing themselves way above the law, and also willing to exploit the differences between law in different parts of the world in order to maximise profit, with a flagrant disregard of the needs of patients. Nothing new, but the last year has seen this just rise and rise.......
and a kind of corporate daredevilry in the way it is done, just as the banks have ridden roughshod over law, so are these companies........

This is happening globally, and should be regarded as something that citizens of the world should tackle before it is so entrenched that there is no turning back. As individuals we mean little, as patients we are simply a means to a profitable end, but collectively people can change things, nationally and globally. If there are initiatives to curb these abuses in your neck of the woods you should where possible support them, and support the people who support them too.

I don't know where it starts, but something needs to turn this tide...... if I am idealistic about this it is because I know the things that we are able to find out are just the tip of the iceberg........

Lindy