Pediatric drug shortages

Of the 69 drugs listed as currently in shortage in FDA's data on Oct. 30, 2026, 17 carry the agency's Pediatric therapeutic tag. Fourteen of the 17 are injections. Four of them, atropine, fentanyl, lidocaine, and a lidocaine and epinephrine combination, have been on the list since early 2012.

Few of them are what most parents would think of as children's medicines. The list is dominated by drugs used in operating rooms, emergency departments, intensive care units and IV nutrition, settings where a child depends entirely on what the hospital pharmacy has on hand. GxRadar pulled the entries from the openFDA drug shortages API¹ and set them beside what published research has measured about shortages in pediatric care.

That comparison is uneven in one direction. Hospital shortages tend to last for years. The outpatient shortages that make headlines, such as the amoxicillin shortage of 2022 and 2023, tend to resolve and drop off the list. All of the current listings are on our shortage tracker.

What FDA's Pediatric tag means

FDA assigns each shortage one or more therapeutic categories. Its shortage FAQ² says the designation "is meant to describe labeled indications and populations in which the drug is commonly used, for example Pediatrics," and that it "does not indicate FDA approved status." A drug may sit in several categories. Every one of the 17 below also carries at least one other tag, usually anesthesia, metabolism or gastroenterology.

Source: GxRadar analysis of openFDA drug shortage records as of Oct. 30, 2026; years counted to Nov. 3, 2026. *A round-number date that likely means "on or before"; see The longest-running drug shortages.

"Available" here is the status reported for most of a drug's listed presentations. FDA's FAQ cautions that an available status "is not an FDA determination that the shortage has been resolved."

A hospital list, and an old one

The median pediatric-tagged shortage has been listed for 1,755 days, about four years and nine months, slightly longer than the median of about 1,700 days for all current shortages, as GxRadar's look at how long shortages last details. Eight of the 17 were first posted before 2018. Only one, ifosfamide, a chemotherapy drug added June 12, 2026, for increased demand, is less than two years old.

Four strengths of dextrose injection are on the list at once, from 5 percent to 70 percent (the 70 percent listing dates from October 2024, during the 2024 IV fluid shortage), all tagged for metabolism and gastroenterology, alongside sodium acetate and sodium bicarbonate. FDA files sodium acetate under total parenteral nutrition, the IV feeding used for patients who cannot eat or absorb enough food. Clonazepam is the only tablet among the 17.

FDA's reasons say little. The most common reason given is "Other," for eight of the 17. Five cite increased demand, two cite discontinuation by a manufacturer, one cites good manufacturing practice requirements and one gives no reason. Our explainer on why sterile injectables dominate shortage lists covers the economics that keep these products scarce.

What researchers have measured

The most complete count of pediatric hospital shortages is older than the current list. A study in Pediatric Emergency Care³, using data from the University of Utah Drug Information Service, found that of 1,883 products in shortage from 2001 through 2015, 779 were used in pediatric emergency or critical care. Resolved shortages lasted a median of 7.6 months. An alternative drug existed for 95 percent of them, but 43 percent of those alternatives were also in shortage at some point in the study period.

A 2022 study in the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy⁴ compared US shortages with the World Health Organization's essential medicines list for children. From 2014 to 2019, 209 shortages hit drugs on that list, and 77 (36.8 percent) were still unresolved at the end of 2019. Resolved shortages had a median duration of 5.9 months, while those still active had lasted a median of 18.3 months. Anti-infectives were the largest group, at 27.3 percent, and no reason for the shortage was reported in 46.4 percent of cases.

Single-hospital studies show what a shortage can do at the bedside. During a national shortage of injectable ethanol, a Michigan children's hospital reduced how often it used ethanol catheter locks in children with intestinal failure, and their rate of catheter bloodstream infections rose from 0.7 to 6.2 per 1,000 catheter days, according to a 2012 paper in Pediatrics⁵. When selenious acid, an IV nutrition additive, was unavailable for nine months at one pediatric intestinal failure program, all five children studied developed biochemical selenium deficiency, a 2014 report⁶ found, though none showed clinical signs. A 2015 study⁷ from a pediatric intensive care unit during a fentanyl and injectable benzodiazepine shortage found no change in prescribing errors but a rise in unintended extubations, from 0.15 to 1.13 per 100 ventilator days.

Outpatient shortages come and go

Children's outpatient medicines tend to run short in bursts tied to respiratory seasons. FDA's report to Congress for 2022⁸ said that, based on the products that went into shortage that year, FDA "noticed an increase in demand for certain drugs used to treat COVID-19 and other infectious diseases, especially in children," and named amoxicillin oral suspension as one result. In the openFDA data, albuterol sulfate solution, tagged Pediatric and first posted Oct. 25, 2022, now shows as resolved. Amoxicillin oral powder for suspension, the subject of our companion piece, no longer appears at all in the openFDA shortage data¹. Its NADAC price history for capsules is on our amoxicillin page.

Demand-driven shortages are the hardest for FDA to see coming. The agency's report for 2023⁹ said "more than half of the shortages seen in CY 2023 were due, in part, to increases in demand," and that "manufacturers are not required to notify FDA about shortages related to increases in demand." Once resolved, these entries leave the public list quickly. The FAQ says resolved shortages stay on FDA's webpage for six months.

Parents who run into a shortage of a child's medicine can ask the pharmacist or prescriber what is available. GxRadar's piece on how FDA tracks shortages explains where the official status comes from.

Dates to watch

Manufacturers' notes on FDA's list give recovery estimates for pediatric-tagged drugs. Sufentanil injection, mostly unavailable, shows an estimated recovery of December 2026. Dextrose 50 percent injection shows March 2027 and sodium bicarbonate injection June 2027, both citing manufacturing delays. Cefotaxime, an antibiotic powder listed since February 2015 and mostly unavailable, gives no date at all. Its note reads "Estimated recovery: TBD."