DENVER -- It is tough enough that Katie Fox’s daughter, Kacy, has a form of cancer. Now, she is hearing word that a drug her daughter used to help fight the cancer and relieve the pain is on a drug shortage list.
“To hear that there’s been a national shortage … how, as a society, do we let this happen?” she says.
Anywhere from 125 to 180 drugs are on the shortage list.
Jerrod Milton, vice president of The Children's Hospital in Aurora, says shortages can occurs because of economic factors like off-shore manufacturing and natural disasters.
One of the drugs on the list is methotrexate.
“Methotrexate is a very common, long-standing chemotherapy,” says Fox. “My daughter was on it in the past. Before, for some of the kids, that is the drug used to cure them.”
Milton says his staff tries not to alarm parents at the hospital about the shortage, but also knows time may be running out.
