Healthy Returns: U.S. drug shortages reach record high, hitting Wegovy, ADHD medications

CNBC April 16, 2024
Annika Kim Constantino,Ashley Capoot

Good afternoon! Drug shortages in the U.S. are at a record high, leaving countless patients in limbo.

A total of 323 drugs were in shortage in the first quarter of this year, up from the previous high of 320 in 2014, according to data published last week by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists and the University of Utah Drug Information Service. That’s the most medicines since the groups began tracking shortages in 2001.

So, which drugs do the shortfalls affect?

Supplies are low for everything from lower doses of Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster weight loss drug Wegovy, certain doses of Eli Lilly’s popular diabetes injection and weight loss counterpart Zepbound, to key cancer treatments and common antibiotics. Many of...

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