Drug shortages in Canada: Fiscal year 2023 to 2024 in review
On this page
- What is a drug shortage
- How Health Canada addresses shortages
- Drug shortages in 2023 to 2024
- Shortages with the highest impact
- Highlights of 2 high-impact shortages
What is a drug shortage
Over 9,000 prescription drugs and 2,000 over-the-counter drugs are approved for sale in Canada. This number varies as new drugs are approved and others are discontinued.
A drug shortage is when there’s not enough supply of a drug to meet demand. A shortage can impact anyone, such as:
- patients
- parents
- caregivers
- healthcare providers
Some shortages can have a large impact on patients, while others are resolved quickly without any impact. This largely depends on the duration of the shortage and whether there are alternative drugs that can be used in place of the drug in shortage.
How Health Canada addresses shortages
For certain drugs, manufacturers must report anticipated and actual drug shortages and discontinuations on the drug shortage reporting website.
To help prevent, mitigate and resolve shortages, Health Canada works closely with:
- provincial and territorial governments
- manufacturers
- the healthcare system
- healthcare professionals
- patient groups
- our global partners
It’s our top priority to try to prevent shortages when possible. We also take actions to mitigate their most severe impacts when they present a significant risk to patients and the healthcare system.
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Drug shortages in 2023 to 2024
In 2023-24, 3,098 drug shortages were reported. This is an increase of around 15% relative to 2022-23. Additionally, 271 drug shortages were carried over from previous years.
Companies need to report each time they cannot fully meet the demand for their drug. Not all reports are cause for concern for patients as many of the same drugs are available in different formats or quantities. Most shortages are successfully managed before they impact patients.
Top 3 reasons for shortages are :
- Manufacturing problems
- Unexpected increases in demand
- Shipping delays
Duration
The average length of a drug shortage reported during this period was 93.5 days. This represents a decrease in the average length of a drug shortage by 4.5 days relative to 2022-23.
Shortages with the highest impact
Drug shortages with the highest potential impact are called Tier 3 shortages. Among all reported shortages, only a small percentage have a high impact on patients and the healthcare system.
In 2023-24, shortages with the highest impact made up 1.3% of all marketed prescription drugs.
Of the 37 drug shortages that had the highest impact on patients and the healthcare system:
- 14 were resolved within the reporting period
- 23 shortages remain active, with mitigation efforts under way to resolve them.
During this reporting period, Health Canada has:
- conducted active monitoring and shared information when we needed to take exceptional measures and confirmed these measures were effective
- identified alternative drugs and sped up the review process for new drugs to support patients
- permitted the importation of similar drugs approved in foreign jurisdictions by trusted partners through exceptional importation and sale measures
- facilitated continued access to these drugs through conservation and shelf-life extension with supporting data.
Highlights of 2 high-impact shortages
Two examples of high-impact shortages over this period include:
Ozempic
Ozempic is a Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist that is used to treat adult patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. It is also used off-label for weight-loss. Ozempic was in shortage from August 2023 to February 2024 due to world wide demand increases.
We took the following actions:
- mobilized and shared information regularly with a broad range of stakeholders on supply
- worked with the manufacturer to monitor supply levels
- facilitated the issuance of recommendations for health care professionals to mitigate the shortage of Ozempic and other GLP-1 receptor agonists by collaborating with clinical experts from different specialities. Patient groups were also consulted in the generation of the recommendations.
Prazosin
Prazosin, a blood pressure medication, is commonly used off-label to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, since early 2023, it has been in short supply due to disruptions in the supply of its active pharmaceutical ingredient.
We took the following actions:
- mobilized and shared information regularly with a broad range of stakeholders on supply
- permitted the exceptional importation of US-authorized supply by Sterimax to meet patient needs until the shortage is resolved.
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