How is greed potentially impacting chemo drug shortages? This week Fight Colorectal Cancer will be closely monitoring testimony at the Senate Commerce Committee about this disturbing practice. Below MSNBC has an eye opening piece on the topic that a Congressional investigation by Chairman John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV, Senator Tom Harkin, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, and Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has been investigating for better part of a year.
Maryland Congressman Cummings says he launched the probe after receiving a letter from University of Maryland women’s basketball coach Brenda Frese, who was having trouble getting medication to treat her son’s leukemia. The lawmaker is proposing reforms to deter price-gouging and make the drug supply chain safer.
Shortages have forced doctors to postpone chemotherapy and surgeries or provide less effective treatment and in some cases have even been blamed for deaths.
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Please note: the hearing will be webcast live via the Senate Commerce Committee website. Refresh the Commerce Committee homepage 10 minutes prior to the scheduled start time to automatically begin streaming the webcast.
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