Injectable Medication Shortages: Why Hospital Pharmacies Are on the Front Line

When a patient needs an IV drip, a life-saving antibiotic, or chemotherapy in the hospital, they expect the medication to be there. But for many, it isn’t. As of July 2025, 226 injectable medications remain in short supply across the U.S.-and hospital pharmacies are feeling it more than anywhere else.

Why Injectables Are the First to Go Missing

Not all drugs are created equal when it comes to supply chain vulnerability. Injectable medications-especially sterile ones-are the most fragile part of the drug supply. Why? Because they’re hard to make. They require clean rooms, sterile conditions, and precise processes that can’t be rushed. One tiny contamination, and an entire batch gets tossed. That’s why 55% of all drug shortages stem from manufacturing quality issues, according to FDA data.

These aren’t pills you can just crank out in bulk. They’re liquids or powders meant to go straight into veins. That means every step-from the raw ingredients to the final vial-must meet exacting standards. And here’s the kicker: most of these drugs are generics. That means low profit margins. Manufacturers barely make 3-5% profit on them. So when a factory in India gets shut down by an FDA inspection, or a tornado hits a plant in North Carolina, companies don’t always have the financial cushion to fix it fast-or even at all.

Eighty percent of the active ingredients for these injectables come from just two countries: China and India. That’s a single point of failure waiting to happen. When political tensions rise, weather gets wild, or regulatory inspections tighten, the whole system wobbles. And when it does, hospitals are the first to feel the pinch.

Hospital Pharmacies Are Hit Harder Than Anywhere Else

Retail pharmacies might run out of a common antibiotic now and then. But hospital pharmacies? They’re dealing with 35-40% of their essential inventory in shortage. And 60-65% of those shortages are sterile injectables. That’s not a glitch-it’s a pattern.

Why? Because hospitals can’t substitute easily. You can’t swap a chemotherapy drug for a pill. You can’t give a heart patient an oral version of their blood pressure medication if it’s not bioequivalent. These aren’t choices-they’re medical necessities. And when they’re gone, care gets delayed, surgeries get canceled, and patients suffer.

The most affected drugs? Anesthetics (87% shortage rate), chemotherapeutics (76%), and cardiovascular injectables (68%). Think of it this way: if you’re in the ER with a heart attack, or in the OR for surgery, or getting chemo for cancer-your treatment depends on these exact drugs. And right now, they’re often not there.

A nurse manager at Massachusetts General Hospital reported canceling 37 surgeries in just three months because of anesthetic shortages. That’s not an outlier. It’s becoming the norm. Hospitals are forced to postpone procedures, stretch supplies, and sometimes use less effective alternatives-all while trying to keep patients safe.

What Happens When the IV Fluids Run Out?

Normal saline. It’s one of the most basic, common drugs in any hospital. Used for hydration, IV flushes, mixing other meds, even cleaning wounds. In late 2024, it vanished from shelves across the country. Why? Because just three manufacturers control 65% of the market. One hiccup, and the whole system collapses.

Hospitals scrambled. Some switched to oral hydration for post-op patients. Others rationed saline, using it only for critical cases. One pharmacist on Reddit wrote: “Running out of normal saline for 3 weeks straight forced us to get creative with oral rehydration for post-op patients-never thought I’d see the day.”

This isn’t creativity. It’s damage control. And it’s dangerous. Oral fluids don’t work the same way as IVs for sick, dehydrated, or critically ill patients. But when you have no other option, you do what you can.

Pharmacists Are Working 12 Hours a Week Just to Find Meds

It’s not just about running out of stock. It’s about the invisible labor behind the scenes. Hospital pharmacists are spending an average of 11.7 hours a week just tracking down alternatives, contacting suppliers, and getting approvals for substitutions. That’s more than a full day each week-time they could be spending on patient care, reviewing doses, or catching errors.

And it’s not just time. It’s stress. A 2025 survey found that 68% of hospital pharmacists have faced ethical dilemmas during shortages. Some had to choose which patient got the last dose of a life-saving drug. Others had to use cheaper, less effective versions because there was no other option. Forty-two percent admitted these substitutions may have compromised outcomes.

It’s not just the pharmacists. Nurses are picking up the slack. Doctors are rewriting orders. Administrators are scrambling to keep beds open. Everyone’s stretched thin.

Why the Fixes Aren’t Working

The government has tried. The FDA’s Drug Supply Chain Security Act requires better tracking. The 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act forced earlier shortage notifications. The Biden administration pledged $1.2 billion to rebuild domestic manufacturing.

But results? Barely there.

Only 14% of shortage notifications lead to timely fixes, according to internal FDA data. The GAO found that new reporting rules only cut shortage duration by 7%. And while the FDA’s 2025 Strategic Plan promises incentives for better manufacturing, it has no teeth. No penalties. No enforcement.

Meanwhile, only 12% of sterile injectable makers have adopted newer technologies like continuous manufacturing-something that could make production faster, cheaper, and more reliable. Why? Because the cost is high, and the profit is low. No one wants to invest when the return is thin.

And here’s the truth: most hospitals don’t even have solid plans in place. Only 45% have written, updated shortage protocols. Another 31% are making it up as they go. That’s not a system. That’s a house of cards.

What Can Be Done?

There’s no magic fix. But hospitals are learning how to survive. The most successful ones have done a few things:

• Created formal shortage management teams-though only 32% feel they’re properly funded
• Consolidated stock of scarce drugs in one central location to reduce waste
• Pre-approved therapeutic alternatives with their Pharmacy and Therapeutics committee
• Built direct relationships with smaller, alternative suppliers
• Tracked usage patterns so they can predict when a shortage might hit

These steps take time. It takes 8-12 weeks to implement them properly. And for new pharmacy directors, it takes over six months to get good at it.

But here’s the hard part: even the best plans only reduce disruption by 15-20%. They don’t solve the problem. They just help hospitals breathe a little longer.

The Road Ahead

The number of shortages dipped from 270 in April 2025 to 226 in July. That sounds like progress. But don’t be fooled. The root causes haven’t changed. Manufacturing is still concentrated overseas. Margins are still too low. Regulations still don’t force change.

Industry analysts predict shortages will stay at current levels through 2027. And with climate change increasing natural disasters that disrupt factories, and global supply chains growing more fragile, the situation is likely to get worse before it gets better.

Hospital pharmacies aren’t the cause of this crisis. They’re the canaries in the coal mine. When they’re running out of saline, anesthetics, or chemo drugs, it’s not just a pharmacy problem. It’s a public health emergency.

Without real investment in domestic manufacturing, stronger regulatory incentives, and a shift away from the low-margin generic model, this won’t end. Patients will keep waiting. Nurses will keep making impossible choices. And hospitals will keep patching together care with duct tape and hope.

The system is broken. And the people who fix it-pharmacists, nurses, doctors-are already running on empty.