US hospitals are struggling with chronic lapses in patient medications as partisan gridlock stalls congressional efforts to mitigate the shortages.
Supply chain hitches and financial constraints have contributed to the continued gaps, researchers say. Only about 32% of drugs facing shortages in the past five-and-a-half years have been resolved, with 75% of the medicines still in shortage for over a year and 58% for over two years, the IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science reported in November.
With hospitals at risk of running low on crucial medications, such as those used in cancer chemotherapy, key lawmakers are demanding a remedy. ...