The magnitude and frequency of drug shortages facing patients, health care providers and the pharmaceutical industry have made the problem too clear to ignore. A problem that wasn’t on the general public’s radar screens just a few years ago today is overtaking mainstream headlines and consuming the drug and health care industries as they struggle to address the problem.
According to an October 2011 Food and Drug Administration (FDA) report, drug shortages nearly tripled between 2005 and 2010, from 61 shortages annually to 178. Most of those shortages—80 percent—involved injection drugs including oncology drugs, antibiotics, and electrolyte and nutrition drugs. Take injectable cancer treatments: While their use has increased by around 20 percent, production capacity hasn’t grown correspondingly.
