Kids' cancer drugs stuck in legislative limbo

(CBS News) There's been a nationwide shortage in life-saving cancer drugs for children. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) tells CBS News that 14 drugs are in short supply.

Fifteen months ago today, Republicans and Democrats introduced bills to solve to problem. The Preserving Access to Life-saving Medications Act would require drug companies to notify the FDA if a shortage is coming. Both parties and the President support the bills, yet they haven't passed.

28 cancer medications in dangerously short supply

CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook found out more about the shortage and then traveled to a place he'd never worked before -- the U.S. capitol.

Ten-month-old Elena Schoneveld is running out of life-saving medications that can treat and cure her cancer.

A good day may not look great when you're ten months old and fighting leukemia like Elena Schoneveld. But 80 percent of children with her kind of cancer can be cured with the right medications.

Two months ago, her dad Mark Schoneveld was told her chemotherapy drug, methotrexate, was running out.

"You just pray that stuff is handled by the professionals, and people do their jobs and get it done," he said to CBS News.

But, it's not getting done. Dozens of cancer drugs are running out. The reasons include manufacturing problems and reduced production due to lower profits with generic drugs.

"The industry has to not be afraid to let the FDA know if they have a problem so that we can get in there and work with them and fix it before it results in a shortage," FDA commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg said to CBS News.

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Kids' cancer drugs stuck in legislative limbo