How Pharmacies Can Get Ahead of Persistent Drug Shortage Challenges

Drug shortages are not a new problem—but they remain an unsolved one. Despite years of industry effort, the average drug shortage now stretches 3 to 4 years, with sterile injectables and low-cost generics bearing the heaviest burden. For community pharmacists on the front lines, the operational and patient care consequences are felt daily.

“Drug shortages have made headlines for many years because disruptions to medication access negatively impact patient care,” Lani Bertrand, senior director of clinical marketing and thought leadership at Omnicell, told Drug Topics. “While we thought that by this time we would be much better at mitigating drug shortages, it continues to be a challenge.”

In this week’s episode of Over the Counter, Bertrand explores how inventory blind spots—from untracked static shelving to reactive hoarding behavior—quietly compound shortage crises at the local level. She outlines what meaningful medication visibility looks like in practice and how predictive analytics and RFID-enabled tracking are becoming accessible even to smaller, community-based pharmacies.

Beyond the pharmacy floor, Bertrand points to a larger systemic opportunity: Greater collaboration between the FDA and agencies like HHS, combined with AI-driven quality monitoring at the manufacturer level, could address shortages at their root.

For pharmacists looking to understand both the scope of the problem and the tools now available to fight it, this is an essential conversation that could help pharmacies overcome drug shortages even before they arise.

Stay tuned for weekly podcast episodes of Over the Counter powered by Drug Topics. Check out our most recent episode with Matt Sample, senior vice president of manufacturer, quality, and replenishment operations at Cencora. He discussed current developments regarding the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) and what pharmacies need to look out for under the law in 2026.

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