The growing global problem of drug shortages: Understanding their impact on research, patients and healthcare systems

Background: Drug shortages are a serious and growing concern for healthcare systems around the world. It is estimated in many countries that one in four patients have either personally experienced, or know someone who has been impacted by a drug shortage in the last 2 years. Managing drug supply issues is a daily issue for healthcare systems with the majority of pharmacists in many countries reporting this as a major disruption to operations. Drug shortages are not limited to certain types of drugs, but are cross-cutting across indications, formulations, companies, and generic status. Drug supply is complex but can be impacted by both supply and demand in several ways. As we have learned over the last decade and during the COVID-19 pandemic, these supply chains can be impacted by a variety of factors such as commercial interests, geopolitical issues, natural disasters, and pandemics. Given the heavy reliance on the global supply chain, minimal capacity in most countries, and the essential nature of many medications, solutions to curb this problem are needed immediately.

Objectives: 1. Explain the underlying issues and impact of drug shortage globally
2. Illustrate how COVID-19 impacted the global drug supply chain leading to drug shortages globally.
3. Explore how shortages have and can impact clinical care and pharmacoepidemiologic studies.
4. Discuss if some policies and interventions could reduce or impact drug shortages differently.

Description: The symposium will be divided in three parts (20 minutes each) assigned to each of the panel speakers. Dr. Mina Tadrous will moderate the session and introduce the problem and highlight some global examples of drug shortages and their international impact. Dr. Tadrous will highlight why this is an important problem to consider and the potential negative consequences and currently available evidence. Dr. Katie Suda will introduce the underlying causes and reasoning for drug shortage through the lens of a supply and demand framework and will discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the stress on the global drug supply. She will share ongoing work to help understand characteristics of drugs at the greatest risk of shortages and their overall impact globally. Next Dr. Anton Pottegård will introduce a novel grass-roots clinician-level intervention (https://www.restordre.dk/) which notifies and keeps clinicians updated on back-orders and shortages. Lastly, the panel will then will provide an overview and discuss potential policies and solutions that can be applied to help reduce the impact of drug shortages and lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. The session will conclude with a 15-minute Q&A from panel members.