Premier : The U.S. has a drug shortage — and people are dying
January 06, 2015 at 12:03 pm EST
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The U.S. has a drug shortage - and people are dying Premier, Inc.
Fortune: Medicinal drugs in the U.S. are in short supply. Some are so scarce - medicines for heart problems, arthritis, diabetes, cancer, Lyme disease, and tuberculosis as well as antibiotics and crucial saline solutions for patients too sick to eat or drink - that patients are dying because they can't get access to them. The shortage goes back at least a decade and shows disturbing trends. In 2007, the Food and Drug Administration listed 154 drugs that were in short supply or no longer available. That figure exploded to 456 in 2012. Today there are more than 300 drugs listed in short supply by the FDA. The situation is pressuring U.S. hospitals to pay at least $230 million more a year than they ordinarily would to find alternative treatments, according to Michael Alkire, COO of Premier. "Hospitals have been scrambling to continue to provide outstanding patient care while there are short supplies," he said.
Premier, Inc. is a healthcare improvement company uniting an alliance of approximately 4,350 United States hospitals and health systems and approximately 300,000 other providers and organizations. It operates through two segments: Supply Chain Services and Performance Services. The Supply Chain Services segment includes the Companyâs group purchasing organizations (GPO), supply chain co-management, purchased services, and direct sourcing activities. The Performance Services segment consists of three sub-brands, which include PINC AI, the Companyâs technology and services platform; Contigo Health, the Companyâs direct-to-employer business; and Remitra, the Companyâs digital invoicing and payables business. It delivers technology-enabled platform that offers critical supply chain services, clinical, financial, operational and value-based care software as a service (SaaS) as well as clinical and enterprise analytics licenses, consulting services, and third-party administrator services.