Half of Hospitals Buy Back-Door Drugs

Recent drug shortages may have prompted hospital officials to buy drugs from back-door sources, according to a new survey. Fifty-two percent of hospital purchasing agents and pharmacists reported they’d bought drugs from questionable vendors during the previous two years, the survey showed.

The Institute for Safe Medication surveyed 549 hospitals about their purchasing practices. Hospital purchasing agents reported that they felt pressure from desperate patients and demanding doctors to purchase from “gray-market suppliers.”

Gray-market suppliers often buy drugs from uncertain sources and resell them at expensive prices. Around half of the survey respondents said that they frequently received solicitations from up to 10 gray-market vendors in the form of e-mails, phone messages, and faxes.

The ISMP report calls for aggressive reforms to address the gray-market problems, including greater authority for the FDA to address the problem, a national pedigree law to replace a hodge-podge of state rules and stricter control of illegal activities such as counterfeiting and theft.

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