U.S. drug shortages drop 23% but average duration climbs to over five years, analysis shows
The latest U.S. Pharmacopeia analysis reports that the total number of prescription drug shortages fell by 23% last year, marking the second year of decline and the lowest level since 2017.
Despite the drop, the average length of each shortage grew to 5.3 years in 2025, up from 4.3 years in 2024 and well above the two-year average seen in 2019.
Nearly two-thirds of the out-of-stock medicines have been unavailable for more than three years, and 39% have been missing for over five years.
The shortages span 75 drugs across 130 therapeutic categories, indicating a broad impact on many disease areas and patient groups.
Analysts say the findings highlight a systemic issue in the supply chain that persists even as the overall count of shortages declines.
This writeup was produced by pharmadog from original reporting by STAT.
Original headline: “STAT+: The shortage of many medicines in the U.S. remains a ‘systemic’ problem, a new analysis finds”
read at STAT ↗
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