Supplies of a bladder cancer drug are dwindling

(HYACINTH EMPINADO/STAT)

There's a critical shortage across the U.S. of BCG, an immunotherapy that's been used for decades to treat bladder cancer. Many smaller clinics have already run out of the lifesaving drug. And some big hospitals have changed their policies to put newly diagnosed patients with active cancers at the top of the list to receive BCG. “I’m horrified. Depressed, annoyed, angry,” says Bob Field, who was told he was no longer eligible for his second course of BCG due to his hospital's dwindling supplies. Companies don’t have much of an incentive to manufacture a drug like BCG: It isn’t easy to produce, and it’s sold at a relatively modest price. Right now, Merck is the only company making the drug in the U.S. and Europe. STAT’s Meghana Keshavan has more on the shortage here.