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In response to a tripling in the number of national drug shortages over the prior 10 years, the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act was passed in 2012 to give the FDA expanded authority to track and moderate the impact of shortages. These authors analyzed data from the University of Utah's Drug Information Service to compare national drug shortage trends from 2001 to 2014 between medications commonly used in the acute care setting and those used in non–acute care settings. A critical shortage was defined as a supply issue that requires prescribers to use an alternative agent.
Over the study period, there were 1929 shortages, 70% of which involved injectable drugs. The annual number of new shortages peaked in 2011 (268); th…