Some lifesaving drugs have been in short supply in recent years, and 52 percent of hospitals surveyed admit they've bought medications from backdoor suppliers. According to an article published by msnbc.com, more than half of hospital purchasing agents and pharmacists surveyed by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) admit buying drugs from "gray market" sellers.

Another report issued by a hospital association found that the backdoor vendors sold their drugs at huge profits — at an average markup of 650 percent. Both doctors and patients pressure the hospitals to make them available, forcing them to buy drugs through nonstandard sources and paying huge markups in the process. “Our physicians DO NOT want to hear that a drug is 'unavailable,'" one hospital pharmacist wrote in the anonymous survey.

A majority of those who responded to the ISMP survey said they got up to 10 petitions each day from gray market dealers. And about one-third of respondents admitted they had paid at least 10 times the standard prices for drugs, most often drugs used to anesthetize patients during surgery, drugs to treat cancer, and drugs to treat patients during emergencies.

"I think it's criminal that pharmacies are 'held hostage' to these scalpers who charge excessive fees to obtain critically needed medications," said one hospital staffer in the survey.

To read the entire msnbc.com story, go here now.