What to ask when your medicine is in shortage

FDA's drug shortage database listed 69 drugs in current shortage at the end of October 2026. Broken out by strength, package and National Drug Code, those 69 entries covered 1,153 separate presentations, according to the openFDA shortage feed⁴ on November 2. Manufacturers marked 749 of them as available.

That split helps explain a common experience at the pharmacy counter. A drug can sit on FDA's list while some versions of it still ship, and a drug can be missing from one pharmacy's shelf without being in national shortage at all. Mixed amphetamine salts tablets, an ADHD medicine first posted as a shortage on October 12, 2022, are an example; of its 73 presentations in the openFDA records⁴, 45 were marked available, 19 unavailable and nine limited.

For a patient told "we can't get it," the useful next step is a set of questions, first for the pharmacist and then, if needed, for the prescriber. Decisions about a different strength, a different product or a different medicine belong to the prescriber and pharmacist, and FDA's own guidance sends patients to them.

How shortage information is published

The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act defines a shortage as a period when demand or projected demand for a drug in the United States exceeds its supply. FDA's shortage FAQ¹ says the agency tracks shortages at the national level and relies mostly on information from manufacturers. Its public Drug Shortages Database gives each drug's name and NDCs, the applicant, the reason as FDA determines it, and the estimated duration, and FDA says it updates the list daily.

Several conventions are worth knowing before reading an entry. A presentation marked "available" reflects the latest information from the manufacturer, and FDA says it "is not an FDA determination that the shortage has been resolved." Resolved shortages stay on the site for six months and discontinuations for a year. The listed reason comes from a fixed menu of seven in section 506E of the act, ranging from manufacturing-practice problems and active-ingredient shortages to shipping delays and demand increases. GxRadar's shortage tracker charts the same data, and our explainer on how FDA tracks shortages covers the history.

GxRadar analysis of openFDA drug shortage records with status "Current," retrieved November 2, 2026. A few records with misspelled status labels were grouped with the matching category.

ASHP, the professional society for health-system pharmacists, keeps a separate shortage list built on different parameters, and FDA's FAQ¹ notes that the two sites differ. A drug can appear on one list and not the other.

A local outage or a national shortage

FDA draws this distinction itself. Its FAQ says local supply problems are "usually temporary and often involve distribution issues, which resolve when the pharmacy is able to reorder from their distributor." When FDA gets reports of local trouble, it checks with manufacturers on whether national supply meets demand. For a medicine that cannot be found locally, FDA's advice is to "check multiple stores or pharmacies, or ask your health care provider or pharmacist if there is an alternative to the medicine you're looking for."

FDA's drug shortages page² lays out the reporting path. Check the database first. If the drug is already listed, FDA says to talk with a health care provider or pharmacist about other treatment options. If it is not listed, anyone can report a possible new shortage through FDA's public portal⁶, and information about an existing shortage can go to drugshortages@fda.hhs.gov.

Questions for the pharmacist

Pharmacists see wholesaler inventory and order histories that patients cannot. These questions get at what they know:

• Is this drug on FDA's shortage list, or is it a delay with your supplier?
• Which strengths, package sizes or manufacturers of this drug can you order right now?
• When does your wholesaler expect the next shipment, and can you call me when it arrives?
• Could another location, or another pharmacy with stock, fill it, and how would the prescription be transferred?
• Is there anything you need from my prescriber to fill a version that is available?

GxRadar's pharmacy finder lists pharmacies near a ZIP code for those calls, and our pharmacist script has wording that works on the phone. Our explainer on the NDC shows why one strength or package can be out while another of the same drug is in stock.

Questions for the prescriber

If no pharmacy can fill it, the conversation moves to the prescriber, who decides whether anything about the prescription should change. Reasonable questions are whether another strength or dosage form of the same drug would suit, whether a different medicine is an option, and how much time there is before a gap in supply would matter for this patient. FDA's FAQ¹ says whether potential alternatives may be appropriate "will depend on each patient," and adds that "FDA does not regulate the practice of medicine."

Timing questions help both sides. A patient who asks, at the start of a fill, how long current stock will last gives the pharmacist and prescriber room to plan the next one together.

What FDA can and cannot do

FDA's tools are real but bounded. Its report to Congress for 2025³ says the agency helped prevent 330 shortages that year, up from 236 in 2023 and 283 in 2024. It expedited review of 224 submissions and prioritized 10 inspections to address shortages. FDA can also review data supporting longer expiration dating and publishes a list of extended use dates⁵, and when a medically necessary drug is short it may look for an FDA-registered foreign manufacturer willing to send product to the US temporarily.

Early warning is the main lever. Under section 506C of the act, as expanded by the 2020 CARES Act, makers of certain drugs must tell FDA at least six months before a permanent discontinuance or an interruption likely to disrupt supply, or as soon as practicable. In 2025, FDA received 1,424 such notifications from 167 manufacturers. Controlled substances add a second agency. DEA sets production quotas, and the 2025 report says FDA's shortage staff contacted DEA 30 times that year; it cites DEA's account of a September 2024 quota increase for lisdexamfetamine after FDA asked for one in July.

That same FAQ¹ states the limits just as plainly. "FDA can't require a firm to keep making a drug it wants to discontinue," and "FDA can't require firms to increase production." "Pricing issues are not within the purview of FDA," the FAQ adds. Our pieces on why shortages happen and sterile injectables cover the economics behind those limits.

New shortages are rare by historical standards. FDA's annual report³ counts four in 2025, compared with 15 in 2024, 55 in 2023 and a peak of 251 in 2011. Old ones linger, though, as our list of the longest-running drug shortages shows. GxRadar's analysis of FDA's list finds the median drug in current shortage was first posted 1,709 days before October 30, 2026, more than four and a half years (our analysis of how long drug shortages last breaks that down), and injectables make up 71 percent of the current list. One recent oral entry, furosemide oral solution, was first posted March 31, 2026; the furosemide tablet tracked on our drug page is a separate product.