Drug shortages in Canada: Fiscal year 2023 to 2024 in review

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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:

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:

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.

Learn more:

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 :

  1. Manufacturing problems
  2. Unexpected increases in demand
  3. 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:

During this reporting period, Health Canada has:

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: 

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: 

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