CLINICAL NEWS
Long on Demand and Short in Supply
Falling into the Gender Gap
In the last five years, the number of drugs in short supply
in the United States has risen 74% – to 265 drugs in 2015.
These drugs range from antibiotics and cancer treatments
to saline. The top five classes of scarce drugs, by the number of drugs in short supply, include:
Gender inequalities in medicine have been documented extensively – both in terms of career progression
and in the number of students graduating from medical school. A new study of publicly reported financial
relationships shows that the gender gap also extends to physicians’ interactions with industry.
In 2011, 432 pharmaceutical, device, and biomaterials companies doled out $17.9 million to 221,000 physicians. Of these physicians, 75.1% were male and 25.9% were female. Per year, female physicians received:
Central nervous
system................ 44 drugs
$3,599
LESS
$42
LESS
$1,893
LESS
$2,898
LESS
$2,407
LESS
$15,050
LESS
overall
per meal
per education
event
per speaker
event
as a consultant
or advisor
for sponsored
research
“The combined disparity of federal and industry-sponsored research funding represents a major genderbased barrier that requires ] [