Why Are There So Many Drug Shortages - Root Causes and Potential Outlook

Drug shortages are a growing global problem and are posing serious clinical and economic challenges. The ongoing supply chain disruptions of the last two years have triggered drug shortages on over a dozen key ingredients to treat infections and serious illnesses such as cancer, resulting in record-high drug prices in the US and Europe. As the drug supply in the US is excessively dependent on India and China for source materials that get turned into APIs, pandemic and climate-related disruptions have weakened the raw material supply, causing shortages of ingredients in high-profile drugs such as Adderall. Additionally, as energy costs are rising tenfold in Europe, generic drug manufacturers are forced to reduce their production.