Ontario hospitals are facing shortages of critical drugs to treat COVID-19 patients amid a surge of cases, forcing some physicians to choose which patients receive potentially life-saving care, while others don’t have access to the drugs at all. Tocilizumab, which is being used off-label for COVID patients, is typically used to prevent severe side effects after some types of cancer treatment and for patients with severe arthritis. But for COVID patients, tocilizumab and sarilumab are either all gone in Ontario or in extremely short supply right now,” said Pai. During the current COVID patient surge, baricitinib is largely unavailable to most hospitals, Pai said. We’re running out as we speak.”Dr. Beth Leung, an infectious diseases pharmacist at St. Michael’s Hospital, a part of Unity Health Toronto, said multiple jurisdictions around the world are facing shortages of critical therapeutics to treat COVID patients.

Source: thestar January 17, 2022 18:00 UTC