U.S. doctors running out of narcotics needed for COVID-19 patients on ventilators are asking the federal government to raise production limits for drugmakers, according to a letter seen by Reuters, after national quotas had been tightened to address the opioid addiction crisis.
FILE PHOTO: A patient suffering from coronavirus disease wears a full-face Easybreath snorkelling mask given by sport chain Decathlon and turned into a ventilator for coronavirus treatment at the intensive care unit at Ambroise Pare clinic in Neuilly-sur-Seine near Paris, as the spread of the coronavirus disease continues in France, April 1, 2020. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier
The U.S. government sets annual limits on how much tightly regulated narcotics can be produced by pharmaceutical companies, and then allocates portions to various manufacturers. Amid an outcry over opioid abuse, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration reduced the overall fentanyl quota by over 30% for 2020.
A senior DEA official told Reuters the agency currently believes the existing national quotas are “completely sufficient” to meet the spike in demand, and there is still room for additional allocations to companies under the cap to make millions more injectable doses that hospitals use. In a statement, Pfizer Inc said it adjusted production schedules to prioritize injectable fentanyl in high demand. The DEA raised the company’s quota this week, it said.
Doctors and nurses can use a range of drugs to help patients that need a ventilator. Some, such as anesthesia drug propofol, are not as tightly regulated as opioids like fentanyl. But hospital staff around the country have already begun reporting shortages of many of these drugs, and difficulty filling orders.
“This exception does not authorize any manufacturer to exceed his previously established annual manufacturing quota,” the DEA wrote.
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