pill medication shortage
© GettyThe Mapping America's Pharmaceutical Supply (MAPS) Act would create a database that identifies supply chain weaknesses before they turn into a drug shortage.
Drug shortages across cancer, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), diabetes and other therapeutics have remained a persistent problem in the U.S. — and despite congressional setbacks, some lawmakers are trying to push legislation through to address it.

Earlier this month, Rep. Larry Bucshon, (R-IN), and Rep. Doris Matsui, (D-CA), introduced a bipartisan bill that would help the federal government prepare for future drug shortages by creating a database mapping the pharmaceutical supply chain.

The bill — called the Mapping America's Pharmaceutical Supply (MAPS) Act — would design a database that tracks a drug product's country of origin, the quantity manufactured and other information to pinpoint supply chain weaknesses before they snowball into a shortage.

The goal is for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to use the map to predict future supply disruptions.

"Recent drug shortages across the nation have made it acutely clear that we need to improve our ability to anticipate, identify and respond to cracks in the system," Matsui said in a statement.

She added that the lack of end-to-end visibility into every step of the nation's pharmaceutical supply chain contributes to issues around reliance on other countries for key drug ingredients or how unexpected disruptions would impact the drug supply.


Comment: Rather than planning to prevent supply issues by addressing patent issues, and production - such as by creating new factories - much of this seems to be mainly warning of worse shortages to come, and with a bill that will, basically, track how bad the situation is.


"The MAPS Act allows the U.S. to take control of our pharmaceutical supply chain, while recognizing the importance of collaboration between the government and private sector," Bucshon added in a statement.

While the U.S. has always faced drug shortages from time to time, the list of active ones reached its highest level in a decade last year, with more than 300 drugs being reported as in low supply.

The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, which monitors drug shortages, found in a survey conducted last year that one in three hospitals reported skipping or delaying prescriptions to patients due to supply issues. The survey also found that 57% of hospital pharmacists said they faced critical shortages of chemotherapy drugs, and this was having a negative impact on patients.

Many of the recent drug shortages have dragged on over time without getting resolved, according to a recent IQVIA report. Among the 132 active shortages listed in the IQVIA report, 75% were active for over a year, with 58% active for more than two years.

Congress returns to tackle drug shortages

In the last year, lawmakers in Congress have sought to pass several pieces of legislation that aim to address the lingering problem.

However, gridlock between Republicans and Democrats left several bills in the air, with Republicans blocking a Democratic effort to include a drug shortage provision in the Pandemic and All Hazards Preparedness Act.

During this past summer, GOP leaders unveiled a draft of another bill, the Stop Drug Shortages Act, which aimed to boost transparency among pharmacy benefit managers and require the Food and Drug Administration to report active pharmaceutical ingredient metrics for generic drugs.

Since then, however, a back-and-forth between Republicans and Democrats in Congress left several drug shortage bills in limbo, with both sides seeking to block each other's efforts.

"Unfortunately, many of the proposals in the Republican discussion draft may actually lead to more drug shortages and increased profits for the pharmaceutical industry, while raising costs for consumers," Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-NJ) said during a September 2023 hearing on the drug shortage crisis.

Meanwhile, the American Hospital Association voiced its support of the MAPS Act, most recently noting that it was an important bipartisan legislation that will strengthen the pharmaceutical supply chain for healthcare providers and patients and improve access to high-quality care.

The drug shortage issue also recently spurred the FDA to announce it would allow the U.S. to import a syphilis drug, extencilline, from French pharma company Laboratoires Delbert — amid a limited supply of Pfizer's Bicillin L-A.