AHA urges FDA to quickly resolve shortages of certain critical drug products

AHA today urged the Food and Drug Administration to take “any and all steps possible” to resolve worsening shortages of small-volume parenteral solutions that are fundamental to patient care in hospitals. “We are concerned that the shortages of widely-used and critical products are quickly becoming a crisis and looming threat to the public’s health,” wrote AHA Executive Vice President Tom Nickels. “Therefore, we call on the FDA to vigorously pursue strategies with the current manufacturers of these products and to seek out new suppliers in order to ameliorate the current shortage, as well as prevent such shortages from occurring in the future.” Current shortages of small-volume parenteral solutions include 50 and 100 milliliter injection bags of sodium chloride 0.9%, dextrose 5% and intravenous nutritional products.