How Drug Shortages Are Delaying Treatments and Endangering Patients

When a life-saving drug isn’t available, it’s not just an inventory problem-it’s a medical emergency. In 2025, over 250 drugs remained in short supply across the U.S., leaving doctors to choose between delaying cancer treatments, using riskier alternatives, or telling patients they can’t get their medication at all. This isn’t a rare glitch. It’s the new normal-and the human cost is mounting.

What Happens When a Critical Drug Disappears?

Imagine you’re a parent whose child has acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The standard treatment includes a drug called asparaginase. But the only manufacturer that produces it has a quality issue. Production halts. The hospital’s supply runs out. Now, your child’s treatment is delayed by two weeks. That delay isn’t just inconvenient-it can mean the difference between remission and relapse.

This isn’t hypothetical. In 2023, shortages of asparaginase, nelarabine, and heparin lasted for years. Heparin, used to prevent blood clots during surgeries, became so scarce that cardiac centers had to redesign their entire anticoagulation protocols. Procedure times jumped by 22%. Staff had to learn new techniques on the fly. Errors spiked by nearly 20% during the transition.

Oncology drugs aren’t the only ones affected. Antimicrobials, used to treat infections, are in short supply too. One hospital in Ohio reported that 37% of patients with severe sepsis had to wait over 48 hours for the right antibiotic because the preferred drug was unavailable. In some cases, patients got older, less effective drugs-or none at all.

Who Gets Hurt the Most?

Children. Elderly patients. People with chronic conditions. These are the groups hit hardest.

Pediatric facilities track 25% more drug shortages than general hospitals. Why? Because kids often need special dosages or formulations that only one or two manufacturers make. When those makers stop producing, there’s no backup. A shortage of IV saline, for example, doesn’t just delay a simple IV drip-it can shut down entire pediatric emergency departments.

Older adults on multiple medications are at risk too. When a common blood pressure pill disappears, doctors may switch to a different one. But that new drug might interact with another medication the patient is already taking. The result? A trip to the ER. According to the NIH, medication errors linked to shortages rose 43% between 2019 and 2024.

And then there’s the financial toll. Patients pay 18.7% more out of pocket during shortages because alternatives are often more expensive. Some skip doses. Others don’t fill prescriptions at all. An estimated 1.1 million Medicare patients could die over the next decade because they can’t afford their meds-shortages make that problem worse.

Why Do These Shortages Keep Happening?

It’s not one thing. It’s a broken system.

About 47% of shortages come from global supply chain issues. Most generic drugs-83% of all shortages-are made overseas, often in countries with weaker regulatory oversight. A single factory in India or China that fails an inspection can cut off supply to millions of Americans.

Manufacturing problems account for 32% of shortages. A tiny contamination in a batch of injectable drugs can trigger a recall. And because these drugs have low profit margins, companies don’t invest in backup production lines. Why build extra capacity when you’re barely making a few cents per pill?

Raw material shortages make up the rest. If the chemical needed to make an antibiotic isn’t available, production stops. And there’s no stockpile. Unlike oil or grain, there’s no national reserve for essential medicines.

The FDA now requires manufacturers to report potential shortages six months in advance. That sounds helpful-until you realize many companies still wait until the last minute. Or they report it too vaguely. Or they don’t report it at all.

How Hospitals Are Trying to Cope

Hospitals are stretched thin. On average, each facility tracks 43 active shortages at once. Some track over 70.

Pharmacists spend 15 to 20 hours a week per shortage just finding alternatives, updating protocols, and training staff. Pediatric units need even more time. That’s 15 hours a week-on top of their regular jobs-just to keep up with missing drugs.

Many hospitals now have shortage management teams. They use software to monitor inventory and alert staff when a drug is running low. They join group purchasing organizations like Vizient, which pools buying power to secure better deals and share alerts across hospitals.

But these are band-aids. They don’t fix the root problem. They just help hospitals survive another week.

The Ripple Effect on Care

When drugs vanish, care doesn’t just slow down-it changes shape.

Outpatient infusion centers, where patients get chemotherapy or immune therapies, have seen 41% of appointments delayed or skipped. Patients wait weeks for treatments they were scheduled for months ago. Anxiety spikes. Progress stalls.

Even common drugs like lorazepam (used for seizures and anxiety) and triamcinolone (for inflammation) are in short supply. That means emergency rooms can’t treat patients effectively. Pain management becomes guesswork. Infections go untreated longer.

One study found that 65% of pharmacy directors had to cancel or delay procedures because of drug shortages. That’s not just a scheduling issue-it’s a safety issue. Delayed surgeries mean longer hospital stays. More complications. Higher costs.

And the stress on staff? It’s real. Nurses and pharmacists are tired. They’re making decisions under pressure, with incomplete information. Burnout is rising. Turnover is too.

What’s Being Done-and Why It’s Not Enough

There’s been progress. The number of active shortages dropped from 323 in early 2024 to 253 by mid-2025. That’s the first meaningful decline since 2022. The FDA’s new reporting rules are helping. Some manufacturers are starting to diversify their supply chains.

But the system is still fragile. The number of shortages is still more than 35% higher than it was in 2021. And the drugs in shortest supply are the ones that matter most: cancer drugs, antibiotics, anesthetics, and insulin.

Congress has held hearings. The White House issued an executive order on supply chains. But no major legislation has passed to fix the core issue: the lack of financial incentive to make low-margin generic drugs.

Until companies are paid fairly for producing these essential medicines, shortages will keep coming. And patients will keep paying the price.

What You Can Do

If you or a loved one relies on a medication that’s been in short supply:

• Ask your doctor about alternatives-don’t wait until your prescription runs out.
• Keep a list of all your medications, including dosages and why you take them. This helps pharmacists find substitutes faster.
• Don’t skip doses or cut pills in half to make them last. That can be dangerous.
• Report issues to your pharmacy or hospital. Your voice helps build the case for change.

It’s Not Just About Pills

Drug shortages aren’t a pharmacy problem. They’re a public health crisis. They’re about whether a child gets to see their next birthday. Whether a cancer patient lives long enough to see their grandchild born. Whether a senior can breathe without an asthma attack.

The system is broken. But awareness is growing. And change starts when people understand what’s really at stake.

If you’re reading this, you’re part of that awareness. Now, share it. Talk about it. Push for solutions. Because when a drug disappears, it’s not just a supply chain issue-it’s someone’s life on the line.