Identifying the Root Causes of Drug Shortages and Finding Enduring Solutions 

Drug shortages complicate patient care and lead to adverse clinical consequences. They directly affect treatment options and require practitioners to make difficult decisions that can compromise care, such as rationing supplies or using less desirable, but more readily available, alternative therapies. The purpose of this meeting—convened in cooperation with the U.S. Food & Drug Administration—is to give stakeholders including health care providers, patients, manufacturers, wholesalers, pharmacists, pharmacy benefit managers, veterinarians, public and private insurers, academic researchers, and the public, the opportunity to provide input on the underlying systemic causes of drug shortages and to make recommendations for actions to prevent or mitigate drug shortages.