Drug shortages peaked in 2023

Ongoing drug shortages in the US reached their highest rates in a decade in 2023, according to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. A series of regrettable events conspired to worsen persistent supply chain problems, and survey data show that these shortages are beginning to affect patient care. Chemotherapies and local anesthetics are some of the drugs most commonly in short supply. Shortages have definitely felt worse this year, says Erin Fox, an associate chief pharmacy officer at the University of Utah Health who studies drug shortages. Intense pricing competition is partly to blame, she says. The FDA rates all generic drugs as equal, and that means that they can only compete on price. And many companies will undercut each other. This price competition has two knock-on effects. The first is that the quality of the production line—not the medicine itself—decreases in a bid to save on cost, increasing the © 2023 Chemical & Engineering News.