Drug shortage puts transplant patients at risk

SOME 100 PEOPLE with kidney and liver transplants are at risk because they are not receiving the tacrolimus drug, which prevents the body from rejecting the donated organ says a patients’ organization.

Alexander Pineda, president of the Association of Patients with Chronic Renal Failure, said Saturday, November 16, that patients have gone 15 days without the Social Security Fund (CSS) providing them with the drug, despite the protests made in October before the National Independence celebrations.
Patients not rule out again blocking the Transístmica highway to protest the shortages.
Meanwhile, reports La Prensa, the CSS says it is is taking steps to get the drug, but the delay is that the distributers do not have a certificate of interchangeability required by Medicine Law No. 1.