Ako­rn’s bank­rupt­cy, re­calls bring a drug to treat lead poi­son­ing in­to short­age

A drug used to treat lead poi­son­ing is now in short sup­ply af­ter Ako­rn Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals filed for bank­rupt­cy and many of its prod­ucts were re­called this spring.

Dimer­caprol is on the FDA’s drug short­ages list, with no date for res­o­lu­tion list­ed.

It’s “very frus­trat­ing” not to have an es­sen­tial an­ti­dote avail­able, as an­oth­er in­jectable prod­uct that can be used to treat lead poi­son­ing is al­so not read­i­ly avail­able, ac­cord­ing to Erin Fox, an ex­pert on drug short­ages and an ad­junct pro­fes­sor at the Col­lege of Phar­ma­cy at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Utah.

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