AIFA: “The available packages will not be able to satisfy market demands for the next few months.” The drug is used for the treatment of tumors of the gastrointestinal system, breast and head and neck area.
Fluorouracil, a chemotherapy drug administered to many cancer patients, is currently lacking or available in reduced quantities in Italy. The Italian Medicines Agency (Aifa) communicates this on its website. “The available packages they will not be able to satisfy market demands for the next few months“, declared the agency, which nevertheless reassures: we are “in constant contact with the holders of the Marketing Authorizations of Fluorouracil-based medicines to have updates on any upcoming additional supplies”.
“Fluorouracil is a drug that is included in numerous treatment schemes for neoplasms of the gastrointestinal system, breast and head-neck area. Its shortage, albeit transitory, represents a real problem for clinical oncology practice also due to the impossibility of replacing it with other drugs for parenteral use”, underlines the Italian Association of Medical Oncology (Aiom). To contribute to overcoming the shortage , Aiom invites clinicians “to consider alternative therapeutic schemes with oral drugs (capecitabine) for patients who will start a new treatment in the next few weeks, if foreseen in the available guidelines and clinically indicated”.
the shortage of the drug will affect tens of thousands of patients. “We estimate – underlines the Aiom president, Francesco Perrone – that approximately 20% of new cancer patients each year could potentially need fluorouracil, these are 70-75 thousand patients per year“. AIFA then reiterated that “it is already putting in motion all the procedures relating to the import of the drug to overcome the critical moment”; the drug Agency said it was available to release to the healthcare facilities that will authorization to import the drug from abroad is required.
