I heard this about a month ago, but was/am still able to get IMS from Cardinal. What is IMS thinking??? They and Hospira are both on my GPO contract and even though IMS costs slightly more, I buy them for a couple of reasons: 1)they give credit for outdates (Hospira doesn't) and 2)they are WAY more reliable than Hospira has been.
With Hospira's increasing inability to supply everything from Amidate to vanco, I have little, if no, expectation that they will be able to meet the increased demand for emergency syringes. Maybe we should all stock up on vials!!!
I second the good wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving to you all! I know I have so much to be grateful for.

Name of Facility: Porter Hospital

City, State: Valparaiso IN

Years as a Buyer: 10+

What are the alternatives once they're gone? Hospira? Going to vials and not syringes?

Name of Facility: Catawba Valley Medical Center

City, State: Hickory, NC

Years as a Buyer: 3

What I really want to say here is unprintable so I will settle for a general statement: WHY if we have the safest drug supply in the world due to the FDA, are so many critical drugs being allowed to just be dicontinued? This would include the ongoing problems with erythromycin opth. ointment, now the stat medications, the allocated supply of anything related to flu, an entire year's hit and miss of most Hospira carpujects and so forth. This has been quite a year to learn by and these posts have helped me tremendously... Thanks for all the help, and good luck to us all!

Name of Facility: MedCentral Health System

City, State: Mansfield, Ohio

Years as a Buyer: 1

Maybe this is a situation in which all pharmacy buyers assert themselves and use the leverage we aspire to as an organized group and contact IMS to let them know of our displeasure at the discontinuation of emergency syringes and to urge them to seriously reconsider that decision.
THEN, we need to support them if they reverse themselves.
I'll send an email today to my IMS rep.
To me this is a real opportunity to show manufacutrers that we, as buyers, can have a major impact on the pharmaceutical world.

Name of Facility: Porter Hospital

City, State: Valparaiso IN

Years as a Buyer: 10+

We received this information from Premier.... It appears that this isn't a voluntary discontinuation.

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals – product discontinuations

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals (IMS) is discontinuing 23 products due to the FDA requirement of filing a new drug application or abbreviated new drug application for these “grandfathered drugs,” effective December 31, 2009. The reason for discontinuing these products are not due to safety or efficacy therefore, products that are already in the distribution chain are safe and can continue to be used. Please see the Generic Updates attachment for specifics on the products and pricing. (Acute, Non-Acute, LTC, Managed Care, and Retail).

Hospira has not yet received any notification from the FDA to discontinue any of their emergency syringe product lines at this time. They have been proactively working with the FDA to bring their products into compliance and do not anticipate it will result in a product shortage. Amphastar currently represents approximately 30 percent of the emergency syringe market, so it will take Hospira several weeks to be able to fully supply Amphastar’s current customer base long-term.

Name of Facility: Arnot Ogden Medical Center

City, State: Elmira, NY

Years as a Buyer: 8 1/2

We want to thank all the posters here on our Pharmacy Buyer Forum, who kept everyone apprised of this situation.

PPO requested an official statement regarding the Emergency Syringe situation with Amphastar. Their response and the complete list of products to be discontinued effective December 31, 2009 is on the Subscriber-Only Resources page of our website, (www.PharmacyPurchasing.com), in a new section for “Breaking News on Recalls & Discontinued Products (from PPO).”

Name of Facility: Summerdale Enterprises, Inc.

City, State: San Diego

Years as a Buyer: N/A