Obama Signs Executive Order On Prescription Drug Availability.

Fox News' Special Report (10/31, Baier) reported, "President Obama today continued his effort to appear as proactive as possible in the remedy for, as he says, an inactive Republican Congress. He addressed a problem we told you about earlier this month, the shortage of some prescription drugs." White House correspondent Ed Henry added, "President Obama still can't convince Congress to pass his jobs bill, so he brought a pharmacy manager and a cancer patient to the Oval Office to explain his move to deal with drug shortages that are putting lives at risk."

ABC World News (10/31, story 4, 0:30, Sawyer) reported that "for almost a year, we at 'World News' have been reporting on the growing drug shortages in this country. Chemotherapy drugs, antibiotics, heart medications, even those crash cart drugs used in emergencies. Well, today President Obama took action, signing an executive order, no Congressional approval necessary, to force drug companies to take action when there's a shortage on the horizon. The most immediate change, a crackdown on price gouging due to the shortages, and that will kick in, starting tomorrow."

Chris Matthews, in a very brief item for MSNBC's Hardball (10/31), reported, "President Obama is adding prescription drug policy to his growing list of executive actions. It's all part of his new slogan, 'we can't wait.'"

The AP (11/1) reports, "An Obama administration analysis concluded a big part of the problem is rising demand, especially for cancer drugs, that those companies haven't been able to boost production to meet. But, 'the main cause of drug shortages is economic,' argued Dr. Thomas J. Smith of Johns Hopkins' Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center and Virginia Commonwealth University pharmacist Mandy Gatesman in this week's New England Journal of Medicine."

Also covering the story are the Wall Street Journal (11/1, A5, Burton, Meckler, Subscription Publication), the Financial Times (11/1, Rappeport, Subscription Publication), the Washington Post (11/1, Kliff) "Ezra Klein" blog, PBS NewsHour (11/1), FOX News (11/1), Bloomberg News (11/1, Armstrong, Edney), Modern Healthcare (11/1, Subscription Publication), Reuters (11/1), CNN (11/1, Silverleib), CQ (11/1, Subscription Publication, Reichard), the National Journal (11/1, Fox, Subscription Publication), the Los Angeles Times (11/1, Levey), the Washington Post (10/31, Nakamura, Stein), the Daily Caller (10/31, Ballasy), and USA Today (11/1, Jackson).