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We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com. Back to Healio Key takeaways: Drug shortages are lasting longer than ever, with the average duration now reaching 5.3 years. The number of product discontinuations last year was higher than any year since 2019. Persistent and prolonged drug shortages across the country are affecting delivery of care across well over 100 therapeutic areas, according to a new report. Shortages are lasting longer than ever, with the average duration now exceeding 5 years, the analysis from United States Pharmacopeia (USP) showed.
Data derived from 2025 USP Annual Drug Shortages Report.
\u201cThat is pretty startling, and it shows that these aren\u2019t one-off, acute shortage events. These are chronic, systemic shortages, indicating there are significant problems with the supply chain,\u201d Matt Christian, director of supply chain insights at USP, told Healio. The number of drugs in shortage at the end of 2025 declined by 23% from the previous year, the report showed. However, that statistic may be misleading, Christian said. Product discontinuations are more common today than at any point since 2019, according to the report. This suggests \u201ca lack of resilience\u201d in the supply chain, and many of the drugs once classified as being in shortage may simply have been reclassified in the discontinued category, Christian said. The report also highlights how geographic concentration could make the supply chain vulnerable to even small disruptions. Concerning trends Drug shortages across medical specialties have been common for years. In oncology, a shortage of the generic chemotherapy drugs cisplatin and carboplatin that began in 2023 led to an absolute reduction in use of more than 15%. Manufacturing complexity, low prices \u2014 which result in slim margins for manufacturers \u2014 and history of quality concerns are among the key drivers of shortages. USP \u2014 a scientific nonprofit organization that aims to establish quality standards for development of medicines, supplements and food ingredients \u2014 released its most recent annual drug shortages report in early June. The report is based on information from FDA\u2019s drug shortage database as of Dec. 31, 2025, with a focus on drugs regulated by the agency\u2019s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER). Among the key findings: CDER reported 75 drugs in shortage at the end of 2025, down from 98 a year earlier. This marked the second consecutive year-over-year decline in shortages, down from a high of 125 at the end of 2023. Sterile injectable drugs, which are complex to manufacture, accounted for 71% of shortages. Oral solid drugs accounted for 16%. Only four of the active shortages began in 2025; the other 71 had carried over from 2024. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of drugs in shortage have been unavailable for more than 3 years. More than one-third (39%) have remained in shortage for longer than 5 years. The average drug shortage duration is now 5.3 years, the longest average duration recorded and more than double the approximately 2-year duration reported in 2019. Drug shortages affect 130 therapeutic categories. The most affected categories are pediatrics (n = 16), gastroenterology (n = 11), anesthesia (n = 10), endocrinology\/metabolism (n = 10) and oncology (n = 6). Product discontinuations increased by 60% from 2024 to 2025 \u2014 rising in absolute numbers from 106 to 170 \u2014 and are now at their highest level since 2019. Oral solid products (55%) and injectables (29%) accounted for a majority of discontinuations. Multiple factors may contribute to drug discontinuations or shortages. Low profit margins \u2014 which reduce incentive to enter or stay in a market \u2014 top the list. \u201cThe biggest driver is low prices, which make production not economically sustainable for manufacturers,\u201d Christian said. Two-thirds (65%) of discontinued oral solid products had been priced at less than $1 per unit. The median price for those products declined by 78% \u2014 from $1.80 to 40 cents \u2014 from 2024 to 2025, according to the report. The percentage of discontinued injectables priced less than $15 per unit increased by 19% from 2024 to 2025. Meanwhile, the average price for generic therapies not in shortage is considerably higher than the average price for those in shortage, according to the report \u2014 $8 vs. $3 for oral solid drugs, and $169 vs. $20 for injectable products. Geographic concentration Geographic concentration within the supply chain is another important consideration, Christian said. A natural disaster, one regulatory action or geopolitical turmoil can disrupt the supply chain and cause considerable downstream implications. This year\u2019s USP report is the first to include data on key starting materials, the core molecular component from which an active pharmaceutical ingredient can be synthesized. At least one key starting material for 33 drugs currently in shortage \u2014 44% of the total \u2014 is manufactured in a single country, most often India or China. Key starting materials for six drugs \u2014 four injectable products and two oral solid products \u2014 are manufactured only in one country. In addition, the European Union is the primary active pharmaceutical ingredient supplier for 15 drugs in shortage, or 20% of the total. India is the primary active pharmaceutical ingredient supplier for seven drugs in shortage. The USP report cited cefotaxime injection as one example. The cephalosporin antibiotic, used to treat serious infections, has been in shortage for more than a decade. The active pharmaceutical ingredient for the U.S. supply is manufactured solely in India, and the key starting material is produced mostly in China. \u2018Reward resilience\u2019 The consequences of drug shortages \u2014 which include delaying essential treatments, or prompting clinicians to choose alternative therapies or change dosing protocols \u2014 can persist even after the supply is restored. \u201cWhen clinicians go through the pain of having to deal with<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2854,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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