The corner drug store isn’t currently affected by many drug shortages; instead, the pain is being inflicted on a vulnerable group of patients in hospitals today. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) “officially” list the shortage of drug products as less than 200; however, the pharma warehouse industry pegs the list a bit higher at approximately 250 drug products.

This list includes drug container closure systems like sterile intravenous bags (IV). It’s important to include the component shortages because these also impede mitigation strategies in place at many of the nation’s hospital systems. Hospital compound pharmacies can formulate these admixtures even in short supply—but not without the IV bag components. The drug shortage list has fallen by almost half in the past three years but there is no quick fix here for underlying challenges.

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