Nitroglycerin is a common drug in emergency rooms, for use when a patient is suffering from a heart attack.
Two American manufacturers recently stopped making the drug, and Baxter — the one company that still does — has been rationing supplies. The FDA has had to scramble to find a nitroglycerin supplier from abroad.
The scarcity of nitroglycerin is part of a larger problem of drug shortages that Erin Fox, the director of the University of Utah’s Drug Information Services, has reached a “crisis level.”
Fox, the director of the University of Utah’s Drug Information Services, joins Here & Now’s Jeremy Hobson to discuss drug shortages in the country.
- Mayo Clinic: Drug Shortages: A Complex Health Care Crisis
- GAO: Drug Shortages: Public Health Threat Continues, Despite Efforts to Help Ensure Product Availability
Guest
- Erin Fox, director of the University of Utah’s Drug Information Service.
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