U.S. More Susceptible to Drug Shortages Than Canada

Supply chain issues are 40% more likely to lead to drug shortages in the U.S. than Canada, according to a study from the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). 

JAMA looked at 100 reports of drug-related supply chain disruptions between 2017 and 2021 in the U.S. and Canada. Over that period, almost half of those disruptions led directly to drug shortages in the U.S., compared to just 34% in Canada, with the majority of those supply chain issues linked to delays in manufacturing, packaging or shipping. 

As for why Canada seemed to be less susceptible to shortages, the study theorized that country has had a more cooperative relationship between drug manufacturers, government agencies, health care systems and wholesalers. In the U.S., the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists has also been sounding the alarm for more than a year, having tracked a record 323 active shortages during the first quarter of 2024 alone, ranging from cancer chemotherapy drugs to medications that treat attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). 

The shortage in ADHD drugs has been particularly prominent, driven by a combination of tight regulatory restrictions on distribution and manufacturing, and a rise in ADHD diagnoses globally dating back years, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration officially declared a nationwide shortage of Adderall — a widely-used ADHD treatment — in the fall of 2022, followed by shortages for a slew of popular alternatives, such as Vyvanse, Focalin and Ritalin. In September of 2024, the FDA raised the threshold for the active ingredient in Vyvanse that U.S. manufacturers could produce yearly by 24%, although other ADHD medications have still proven difficult to find at pharmacies.