Giving Compass' Take:

• At The Conversation, Stacie B. Dusetzina, Associate Professor of Health Policy and Cancer Research at Vanderbilt University, discusses the work of Civica Rx, a nonprofit generic pharmaceutical company, to address drug shortages. 

• Civica Rx was created out of a collaboration of foundations and hospitals. Could its model be the future of health care philanthropy? What are the potential pitfalls?

· Check out these articles on prescription drug costs and the shortage of generic drugs. 

Several years ago, drug shortages became headline news when supplies of three different drugs used to treat childhood cancers were running low in major hospitals. Sometimes shortages like those are resolved before patients are harmed. Sometimes they are not.

There are two main reasons for drug shortages that are both terrifying and becoming more frequent: There are not enough companies making these drugs and those companies aren’t producing adequate supplies. This situation has led several hospitals and foundations to form Civica Rx, a nonprofit generic drugmaker.

As a health policy researcher, I have studied patient access to prescription drugs for more than a decade. I believe there is an obvious need for Civica Rx to increase the supply of generic drugs that are in short supply and introduce more competition for drugs whose prices remain stubbornly high.

Read the full article about Civica Rx and health care by Stacie B. Dusetzina at The Conversation.