Practical Approaches for Handling Drug Shortages

According to the FDA, the number of drug shortages has nearly tripled over the last 6 years—jumping from 61 drug products in 2005 to 178 in 2010 and more than 200 in 2011.Such drug shortages, caused by a variety of factors...adversely affect drug therapy regimens, patient care, and health system finances.

The associated labor costs for health systems to address challenges of drug shortages are very high, and more than two-thirds of health-system pharmacists recently surveyed reported that available resources to manage drug shortage problems are insufficient. Against this backdrop, this practice pearl provides an update of current legislative efforts to alleviate drug shortages and offers practical strategies that federal agencies such as the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) use to address this issue...