Drug Shortages: Managing prioritization and improving the supply chain
Channel: HMS Center for Bioethics
Date: 2021-02-26

Health Policy and Bioethics Consortia, October 9, 2020
Presented by Erin Fox, PharmD, BCPS, FASHP and Yoram Unguru, MD, MS, MA
Moderated by Ameet Sarpatwari, PhD, JD

Drug shortages, when the supply of a drug is not adequate to meet current or near-term future demand, have become increasingly common in the U.S. These shortages occur for a variety of reasons, including disruptions to supply chains, manufacturing stoppages, and economic incentives. Drug shortages have real effects on patients and result in medication errors, delayed life-saving treatment, and worse patient outcomes. We will examine what policies could change the current situation and ensure the consistent supply of drugs. Shortages also raise important questions to consider about what clinicians should do during a shortage and how to make decisions about which patients to prioritize for treatment with a scarce resource.

Organized by the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics and the Program on Regulation, Therapeutics, and Law (PORTAL) at Brigham and Women's Hospital, in collaboration with the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School.