Assessing Relationships Between Drug Shortages in the United States and Other Countries

Drug shortages, which occur when the supply of drugs does not meet the demand, are a persistent policy and public health concern in the United States and in other countries. The authors assess whether U.S. drug shortages result in (1) measurable changes in U.S. volume, price, and other metrics, and (2) measurable changes in the same outcomes in other countries. They found that most U.S. shortages appear to be domestic in scope.