As the United States continues to face persistent shortages of cancer and other life-saving drugs, Major General (Ret.) Dr. Richard Stone warns this crisis is “a national security threat.” Dr. Stone, a physician and former Acting Under Secretary for Health at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, recently appeared on an episode of Pinkston’s Coffee with Closers podcast to discuss his book, Save Every Life You Can.
The full interview can be watched here or to listen, visit Apple Podcasts.
“We’ve got shortages of antibiotics today. We’ve got shortages in basic things that we need to debate. We need to debate where the base chemicals, the what we call APIs [active pharmaceutical ingredients] come from,” said Dr. Stone.
According to data from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), there are currently more than 135 drugs in shortage in the United States, along with shortages of medical devices and other supplies. This problem has persisted for years, with 15 “critical drug products” experiencing shortages for more than a decade, as reported by the U.S. Senate Homeland Security Committee. One of the major contributing factors to these issues is the outsourcing of pharmaceutical manufacturing to countries like China and India.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Stone shares a personal experience that highlights the severity of the situation. He describes a scenario in which he had to rely on the generosity of a private individual to procure and ship personal protective equipment (PPE) from China.
“I needed a civilian to keep me running. And he put up over $5 million in order to fly FedEx planes in with 94,000 pounds of PPE on each plane. I was flying multiple planes a week out of China because I was running out of masks and gloves and gowns. And I refused to be in a situation where we saw New York civilian providers wearing garbage bags. And I said, we’re not doing that.”
As for the solution, Dr. Stone asserts that addressing the supply chain challenges and strengthening America’s industrial base requires a concerted effort from federal agencies and the pharmaceutical industry. This includes having “very robust emergency stores in this country that can take us through a year or two until we can grow our own capability.”
“America needs to debate on where they want to be with the supply chain, both pharmaceutical and the rest of the medical supply chain, because I view it as a national security threat of where we are at today and we need to change that,” said Dr. Stone. He added: “That requires a robust, fundamental discussion with HHS and its subordinate agencies of where that goes and whether I’m talking about the CDC or the FDA or really debating with big Pharma, where we really move this. America must be protected.”
In Save Every Life You Can, Dr. Stone recounts some of the most difficult decisions he had to make while leading clinical teams in Afghanistan and at the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). While in Afghanistan, he shares a powerful and moving moment when U.S. service members lined up early one morning to donate blood to save the lives of Afghan children who had been severely injured in a school bombing. This came after a “pretty tough decision” he had to make when his blood supply from Germany arrived spoiled, resulting in him not being able to give any more of it to the children because “I couldn’t put American service members at risk,” said Dr. Stone.
He also shares leadership principles gleaned from navigating multiple crises throughout his career and how they can help improve and transform U.S. healthcare–in the areas of communication, integration and chronic disease management.
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Website: https://www.amazon.com/Save-Every-Life-You-Can/dp/1662853424