The FDA’s most recent response to the anti-cancer drug shortage crisis may be a perfect example of “too little, too late.” What follows will not be a rant about offshore outsourcing or the regulatory climate in general. However, the FDA decision (See FDA’s Press Release regarding shortages of anti-cancer drugs here) to allow Sun Pharma’s version of Doxil (doxorubicin HCl liposome injection) into the United States to replace the approved Ben Venue product may be a dangerous one for patients with ovarian cancer.

Although my patients have very diverse backgrounds (ie, in class, age, ethnicity, race, education, language, health literacy), they are quite similar in what they fear and what they don’t fear. For my female patients, breast cancer is at the top of the list. Somewhere beneath that is diabetes, then heart disease, stroke, and others that you would expect. I’m pretty sure that for most of my patients, lung cancer doesn’t even make it on the list.