A Ripple Effect of Covid-19 Pandemic on Shortage of Medicinal Products and Its Impact on Patient Care

Abstract

Objective: Shortages of medicinal products are complex global problems. Drug shortages remain a significant public health issue. Global shortages of medical products have a potential effect on patient health and total healthcare costs. Countries worldwide, especially those affected by Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), is experiencing a rapid increase in drug shortage, which causes several complications for physicians, health care provider, patients, health institutes and health regulatory bodies. Methods: To carry out the study of shortages, several efforts have been taken by the regulators and industries. Prominent amongst these include FDA's research the needs and the reforms made in the regulations about shortages. We also searched for electronic databases (PubMed, Science direct, Web of Science) using the terms (COVID-19 and shortage) or (medicine and COVID-19) for articles in periods of 2019 to 2021. Results: On assessment based on the report, the number of shortage drugs in 2020 is 835; Anesthesia drugs are highest during the COVID-19 outbreak data indicate the number of shortages is 143 in USA. It was found that generic products were mostly in short supply, with antimicrobial agents (63%) topping the list of therapeutic categories of medicines with interrupted supply, followed by oncology medicines (47%) and then anesthetic agents (38%) during COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusion: Many steps have been taken to reduce the impact of a shortage of health care. Agencies like the United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) has established guidelines and works with manufacturers and other partners to help prevent shortages. This article aims to the analysis the root cause of medicinal product shortages, their effects on the patient outcome, medication error, which occurs due to the substitution safe and effective therapies with alternative treatments, identify possible solutions and policies established to manage medicinal product shortages.