New Study Examines Drug Shortages

While disruptive and of growing concern to patients and clinicians, the current drug shortages in the US are limited mainly to generic injectables and a small number of disease areas, according to Drug Shortages: A Closer Look at Products, Suppliers and Volume Volatility, an IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics study.

The report’s findings include:

• The drug shortage crisis is extremely concentrated
• More than 80% of products affected are generics
• More than 80% are injectables
• Oncology drugs make up 16%
• A large number of suppliers are involved in the shortages, but most drugs in limited supply have only 1 or 2 manufacturers
• The 168 products included on the shortages lists are supplied by more than 100 companies
• 51% of the products affected have only 1 or 2 suppliers
• Within the past 2 years, 13 companies have halted the supply of products on the shortages lists
• An increasing number of products are susceptible to production disruptions that cannot be quickly offset by other manufacturers
• Although total supply volume has been steady or growing for many affected products, substantial instability exists among suppliers
• All products on the shortages lists have shown an increase of 4% in total monthly supply volume over the past 5 years
• Recent signs of growing unpredictability in the monthly supply of affected products have resulted in disruption to providers
• Supply volume has decreased significantly for a group of 75 drugs
• Compared to a 3-year base period ending in 2009, a group of products has shown declines in supply greater than 20% in recent months
• The per-capita supply of injectables has fallen more than 30% in 13 states, causing significant treatment protocol disruption for patients

“Patients throughout the US, including hundreds of thousands being treated for cancer, may be at risk of treatment disruption due to drug shortages,” said Murray Aitken, executive director, IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics. “Understanding the nature of these medicines, their suppliers and the supply volume dynamics – and focusing sharply on the market and supply chains that are most impacted – are essential to formulating meaningful solutions to this complex, and often misunderstood, issue.”

Source: IMS.