Drug Shortage

Shortage of fluconazole for injection

There are three manufacturers remaining for injectable fluconazole after Ben Venue gave up on being able to make products that could consistently pass inspection at its Bedford, Ohio plant. That plant closure last month probably triggered this and many other shortages, but all the other producers report unspecified “manufacturing delays.” There is an unfilled need for publication of specifics in the shortage reports from the American Society for Health-System Pharmacists. The manufacturers’ claims of protected proprietary information do not outweigh the commonweal.

Commonly referred to as thrush, Candida spp. infections of the mouth and esophagus are sometimes treated by injection of fluconazole. Treatment is routinely started while the lab work involved in discovering whether it will kill off the infection proceeds. There is also a use for combating a common secondary infection by Cryptococcus neoformans when someone’s immune system has been compromised by HIV. Injectable fluconazole is similarly used when someone’s bone marrow cells are purposefully killed by radiation and/or drugs. The drug can keep the fungi normally found on and in the human body from killing the person until a bone marrow transplant can be performed and until the transplant “takes.”