Laura Bray and her husband Mike learned four years ago that their daughter, Abby, had been diagnosed with leukemia.
Bray told CNN in a special report: “I think anybody who’s been in a life threatening diagnosis, will remember those moments.”
When they went into the hospital with Abby for chemotherapy, the doctors told them she would not be able to have her Erwinaze drug that day.
Why? Because it was on shortage.
Bray said: “Abby is clever. Nothing gets past her. And she just said, ‘What does this mean? Does this mean I die?’”
The mother-of-three added: “It’s hard enough that my 9-year-old had to contemplate her mortality when she’s diagnosed with cancer, and also then wonder if she was going to survive because not enough drug was made.”
Bray put together a consortium of friends and family, and they immediately began calling more than 220 children’s hospitals around the country to ask if they had the medication that could save Abby.
Finally, someone said yes.
Bray said: “It was a relief and a release of all the stress. And then, I felt tremendous guilt.
“I was haunted by the knowledge that somewhere in the country, some other mom and child was going to be going through the same hopeless conversation.”
Bray then launched the non-profit Angels for Change, and calls began to flood in.
Right now, there is a 10-year high of drug shortages, as well as more than 300 essential medicine shortages, Bray said.
She explained that there are four key reasons for the shortages: low profitability, complicated manufacturing, history of quality assurance events, and isolated production or supply.
Bray also launched ‘Project Protect,’ in which she anticipates which drugs will go into shortage and produces them with other companies before it’s too late.
Their first effort was a $100,000 grant to the for-profit stack pharmaceutical to manufacture two specific drugs: potassium chloride and sodium chloride.
Newborns, NICU patients, and PICU patients all need both of those drugs to survive.
Jerrod Milton, the Chief Clinical Officer at Children’s Hospital Colorado, said to CNN: “It’s like salt and pepper. You never think you’re going to run out of those very simple things.”
When asked what would have happened if Bray’s ‘Project Protect’ didn’t exist, Milton said: “I shudder to think what we would have had to do.”
Her project anticipates shortages and creates those medications, and according to Bray, more than 700,000 treatments were accessed.
Bray said: “Each one of those that’s being filled up, seven to nine NICU babies are going to get fed today.”
As for Abby, she is now a cancer survivor, thanks to Bray’s efforts.
“She’s doing great. She’s a very normal, typical, bright, clever, fierce 13-year-old.”
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