The next army secretary. Other nominees included the defense undersecretary for intelligence and for personnel and readiness and the assistant defense secretary who advises on weapons of mass destruction to the committee is chaired by her son senator john mccain. This is just under two hours. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] the Senate Armed Services Committee Meets today to consider the nominations of mark espers to be secretary of the army or robert l. Wilkie to be undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness Joseph D Kernan to be undersecretary of defense for intelligence and roberts were Nuclear Chemical and biological defense weapons. I would like to say that ive been pleased with the reaction of the secretary of defense and the administration being cooperative and responding to our questions and to our ability to carry out our responsibilities on the Defense Authorization bill. I think most members were happy with their briefing that we received concer
reporter: the shortages threaten the lives of patients like allison curran. i want to live. and i want these people with leukemia not to go through the pain and the suffering that i ve been going through. and now the medicine is at arm s length and i can t grab it. reporter: and now, it s not just chemotherapy drugs. but 209 different critical drugs, antibiotics, anesthesia drugs and even crash cart drugs, used for heart attack victims, all in dangerously short supply. forcing some hospitals to buy their medicines from profiteers who can charge a staggering 650% more for a drug. by one count, 15 deaths now blamed on the shortage. some hospitals forced to improvise, making mistakes. this growing trend has the potential to impact our entire health care system. reporter: around the clock race. hospitals scrambling to find drugs their patients must have. we actually have to take pharmacist time away from taking care of patients to be able to manage these drug shortage
good evening. we begin tonight with that shortage of vital drugs in this country. word today it is now reaching patients in hospitals all across the country. shortages of everything from medicines that fight cancer to medicines for your heart and medicines to fight infection. it is so worrying, a hearing was called on capitol hill. and abc s medical editor, dr. richard besser, was one of the first to sound the alarm about this growing crisis. and he brings us the latest tonight. reporter: the shortages threaten the lives of patients like allison curran. i want to live. and i want these people with leukemia not to go through the pain and the suffering that i ve been going through. and now the medicine is at arms length and i can t grab it. reporter: and now, it s not just chemotherapy drugs. but 209 different critical drugs, antibiotics, anesthesia drugs and even crash cart drugs, used for heart attack victims, all in dangerously short supply. forcing some hospitals to b
good evening. we begin tonight with that shortage of vital drugs in this country. word today it is now reaching patients in hospitals all across the country. shortages of everything from medicines that fight cancer to medicines for your heart and medicines to fight infection. it is so worrying, a hearing was called on capitol hill. and abc s medical editor, dr. richard besser, was one of the first to sound the alarm about this growing crisis. and he brings us the latest tonight. reporter: the shortages threaten the lives of patients like allison curran. i want to live. and i want these people with leukemia not to go through the pain and the suffering that i ve been going through. and now the medicine is at arms length and i can t grab it. reporter: and now, it s not just chemotherapy drugs. but 209 different critical drugs, antibiotics, anesthesia drugs and even crash cart drugs, used for heart attack victims, all in dangerously short supply. forcing some hospitals to b