U of T researcher Mina Tadrous gets $2.2M to help Canada get ahead of drug shortages

University of Toronto researcher Mina Tadrous has spent years studying drug shortages in Canada, but he says some of the most useful lessons he’s learned have come from talking to the pharmacists and other supply chain experts who deal with them firsthand.Now, backed with $2.2 million from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada’s newly established Life Sciences Fund, he wants to make that collaboration a central part of his research.“If we were just academics by ourselves, just kind of crunching numbers, thinking we knew what we were doing, we wouldn’t have got the important stuff that we got from working with wholesalers and . . . hospital pharmacists,” Tadrous told Pharmacy Practice + Business, speaking about past research. Now, Tadrous’ new funding will go towards creating the Canadian Drug Supply Observatory, a national hub the U of T researcher is establishing to better understand medication supply risks, identifying problems before they disrupt patient care.Building on previous research from a national team, the observatory will use Canadian drug supply data and simulation models to examine how policy decisions could affect medication availability. A computer model might flag a shortage of a five-milligram strength of a drug, explains Tadrous, but a pharmacist may know that the 10-mg version can be split and used instead.“If the five milligram goes into shortage, you just cut the 10 in half,” he said. “What I care about is when I don’t have the five and the 10.”This winter, the team also plans to launch an international dashboard tracking drug supply policies around the world, in the hopes researchers and policymakers will be able to see what other countries are trying and learn which approaches appear to work.A simulation model planned for next year will take that work a step further, by allowing researchers to examine how different policy choices or investments could affect drug supply. Some medications will receive particular attention, says Tadrous. His team plans to focus on oncology products over the next year following several major shortages internationally. Critical IV drugs and IV antibiotics are other areas the team considers vulnerable.However, Tadrous said one of the observatory’s most important jobs will be creating a place for people working in different parts of the drug supply system to talk to each other.Beginning in the new year, the team plans to bring pharmacists and others together to discuss emerging problems and share what they are seeing.“Consider this kind of an open call for people that want to engage in it,” Tadrous said. “It’s supposed to be an umbrella that brings everybody together, not just academics.”

U of T researcher Mina Tadrous gets $2.2M to help Canada get ahead of drug shortages

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