Shortage...

 


U.S. Food and Drug Administration declared a nationwide shortage of many forms of injectable fentanyl citrate. This dosage form of the highly-potent opioid is often used for Hospitals, outpatient surgery and endoscopy procedures, such as colonoscopies.

The irony owes to the concurrent, rampant distribution of fentanyl and its chemical relatives in the clandestine drug supply across the U.S. and Canada.

In fact, illicitly-manufactured fentanyl, primarily from China, is the primary cause of the five-fold increase in U.S. overdose deaths due to synthetic opioids: from 3,105 in 2013 to approximately 20,000 of the total 60,000 opioid overdose deaths in 2016.

In contrast, three pharmaceutical fentanyl providers -- Akron, West-Ward and Pfizer -- are experiencing shortages of many versions of the injectable citrate form of the drug. According to the American Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists, a combination of increased demand and manufacturing delays are behind the pharmaceutical fentanyl shortages. Fentanyl product backorders range from intermittent to delays as long as the third quarter of 2018.