Definition of a medical shortage?
A medicine shortage occurs when the supply of a medicine cannot meet regular or projected consumer demand.
Supply Side
A “shortage” occurs when the health system’s supply of essential medicines is considered insufficient to meet public health and patient needs. This definition refers only to products that have already been approved and marketed.
Demand Side
A “shortage” will occur when demand exceeds regular supply at any point in the supply chain and may ultimately create a “stockout” where orders for a product exceed the amount of inventory kept on hand.
Why do medicine shortages occur?
Manufactures who are legally responsible for therapeutic goods maintain continuity of medicine supply through several activities, including demand forecasting, stock control and backup supply routes. However, despite their best efforts, situations sometimes arise where disruption to the supply of medicine or treatments is unavoidable.
Medicine short supplies or shortages occur for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to:
- Manufacturing plants relocations, mergers, repairs and maintenance and or closures
- Shifts in clinical practices, which can lead to a change in demand
- Wholesaler and pharmacy inventory practices
- Availability of raw material shortages
- Changes to the contract arrangements that hospitals and pharmacies have with suppliers and wholesalers
- Manufacturer decisions to discontinue specific marketed medicines
- Natural disasters
- Pandemics or significant public health crisis
- Manufacturing and/or supply chain transportation challenges—locally or from overseas
- Unexpected quality issues that lead to a product recall.
Regardless of the root cause, a shortage means healthcare professionals sometimes use more expensive and less-effective medications or therapies. In addition, Hospital and retail pharmacists spend countless hours seeking alternative products.
Reporting mechanisms
Many countries have established mandatory reporting frameworks to report all shortages of prescription medicines and some essential over-the-counter medicines. But despite all efforts, sometimes disruptions to the supply of medication cannot be avoided, and mandatory reporting of medicine shortages will not prevent these disruptions.
TGA approved S19a A-Z product list
Download, our current TGA, approved S19a A-Z product List. If there is something you can’t find, our expert team is always here to help.
Our role in medicine shortages
Our rapid response and breadth of experience for short supply products and medical shortages guarantee we provide the market with superior alternative medicines or treatments, mitigating the effects of medicine shortages on patients and our healthcare system.
Medsurge has longstanding, extensive partnerships with leading global pharmaceutical manufacturers. We also have access to charter services and a wide range of international air cargo aircraft, guaranteeing stock arrival.
Medsurge’s proactive approach:
- Observe and monitor global pharmaceutical and raw material supply chains
- Initiate regularly open dialogue amongst stakeholders and industry, such as hospitals, retail pharmacies, manufacturers, wholesalers, government, and regulators
- Aggregating local and global databases of medicine shortages to form statistical analysis and actionable insight
- Review demand, product usage information and trends
- Examine global and country-specific medicine shortage reports
- Review reported notification, communications and alert services
- Conduct initial assessments
- Rapidly source and secure superior-quality alternative medicines – maintaining demand levels
Prescription drugs and important over-the-counter medication shortages are an ongoing global and industry-wide problem. No manufacturer or distributor is immune to the supply challenges, not to mention the impact of critical medicine shortages on patients and health outcomes.
Medsurge proactively works with all manufacturers and all industry stakeholders to mitigate medicine shortages. If you’re experiencing supply disruptions or foresee challenges in the near future, we encourage you to arrange a confidential discussion with our expert team.
