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WASHINGTON — Congress is considering a must-pass pandemic preparedness bill that presents a good opportunity to fix the nation’s current drug shortages problem, which both parties want to do. But most indications are that lawmakers will let that opportunity pass them by.

Although not new, drug shortages are now a crisis, with an increasing number of reports about cancer doctors having to ration chemotherapies and other drugs.

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Politicians have been well aware of the problem for years. At the request of a large bipartisan group of lawmakers, a task force chaired by the Food and Drug Administration in 2019 reported on the root causes of drug shortages.

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