Longest Active Drug Shortages

Reading the Longest Active Drug Shortages

This table ranks 35 drugs by days in shortage, sourced from FDA Drug Shortage Database. The current leader is atropine at 5,366, followed by fentanyl and epinephrine. Each row links to a full drug profile so readers can move from headline number to the underlying FDA data, labeling, FAERS reports, recalls, pricing, and shortage status, that explains why a particular drug sits where it does.

Drug shortages occur when demand exceeds supply, typically due to manufacturing problems, raw material shortages, regulatory actions, or business decisions to discontinue low-margin products. The longest shortages tend to involve injectable medications and sterile products that require specialized manufacturing. Chronic shortages force healthcare providers to use alternative therapies, ration supplies, or delay treatments, creating patient safety risks beyond the drug itself.

Rankings are diagnostic, not prescriptive. Absolute numbers are shaped by exposure volume, reporting practices, and data-collection methodology, so a drug near the top is not automatically "worse" than a drug near the bottom, it may simply be older, more widely prescribed, or manufactured by firms with more visible reporting. Context from FDA Drug Shortage Database updates continuously, which means the relative order here can change from one refresh to the next. Rankings on this page are for educational research only and must not be used as a substitute for medical advice from a licensed clinician.