Prescription drug shortages are something few clinicians would have anticipated as a challenge for developed countries such as Canada and the United States. Yet, drug shortages are now appreciated as a global problem.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has defined a drug shortage as being when “the total supply of all clinically interchangeable versions of an FDA-regulated drug is inadequate to meet the current or projected demand at the patient level.”1(p8) The list of drug therapies in short supply almost tripled between 2005 and 2010, with 178 drug shortages identified in 2010.1 From January through October 2011, there were 220 shortages reported by the FDA.2