QuVa Chief Development Officer and Co-founder Peter Jenkins talks to The Associated Press:
NEW YORK (AP) — “As hospitals scour the country for scarce ventilators to treat critically ill patients stricken by the new coronavirus, pharmacists are beginning to sound an alarm that could become just as urgent: Drugs that go hand in hand with ventilators are running low even as demand is surging. Michael Ganio, of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, said demand for the drugs at greater New York hospitals has spiked as much as 600% over the last month, even though hospitals have stopped using them for elective surgery…”
“…QuVa Pharma, a drug compounding business that makes drugs for hospitals nationwide, also received a higher ceiling for making fentanyl and hydromorphone and expects to begin shipping more of those drugs directly to hospitals starting April 20, said co-founder Peter Jenkins.
The Houston-based company aims to make two to three times its normal volume of those drugs while manufacturing extra sedatives and paralytic drugs, plus one to boost blood pressure in COVID-19 patients, said Jenkins.”