Drug Shortages Monitor: FDA and EMA Shortage List

Drug Shortages Monitor tracks drug shortages and medicine shortages from two regulators. It reads the US FDA drug shortage list (openFDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) shortages catalogue. It returns every shortage in one schema.

Each record has the product, active ingredient, company, status, reason, start date, expected resolution, last update and a link to the regulator. Status is one of current, resolved or discontinued.

It suits hospital and retail pharmacies, drug wholesalers and distributors, procurement teams, supply chain analysts and AI agents. Schedule it daily with monitor mode on. Each run then returns only new shortages and shortages that changed.

Drug shortages covered: FDA and EMA

Regulator	Data source	What one record means	Records on 21 October 2026
FDA (United States)	openFDA drug shortages API	One package (NDC) in one shortage posting	1,608: 1,140 current, 449 to be discontinued, 19 resolved
EMA (European Union)	EMA shortages catalogue (JSON report)	One medicine shortage that EMA assessed	85: 27 ongoing, 53 resolved, 5 discontinued

Counts change every day. Both sources showed an update dated 21 October 2026 when counted.

Australia's TGA shortage database is not included. Its copyright terms do not allow commercial reuse without written permission.

Drug shortage data you get

Field	Meaning
regulator, country	FDA and US, or EMA and EU
status	Shared status: current, resolved or discontinued
statusOriginal	Status as the regulator wrote it, for example "To Be Discontinued" or "Shortage ongoing"
changeType	Monitor mode only: new or updated
availability	FDA: Available, Limited Availability or Unavailable
productName	Brand or medicine name
activeIngredient	Active ingredient or substance
brandNames	List of brand names. FDA rows with an openFDA match only. Empty for EMA rows
route	List of routes of administration, such as ORAL or INTRAVENOUS. FDA rows with an openFDA match only. Empty for EMA rows
company	Company that reported the shortage (FDA)
presentation	Affected strength, form and pack
dosageForm	Dosage form
therapeuticArea	FDA therapeutic category or EMA therapeutic area
reason	Shortage reason (FDA)
notes	FDA notes, for example next delivery and estimated recovery
alternativesAvailable	EMA: whether alternatives exist
startDate	Start of the shortage or first posting, YYYY-MM-DD
expectedResolution	Expected end, as the regulator or company wrote it
discontinuedDate	FDA discontinuation date
updatedDate	Last update at the regulator
packageNdc, applicationNumber	FDA package NDC and application number
sourceUrl	Link to the shortage on the regulator's site
sourceAttribution	Source acknowledgement required by the data licence
recordId	Stable ID of the shortage across updates
id	Version ID. It changes when the shortage changes

Sample FDA record from a test run:

{
  "recordId": "fda:0409-3182-02:2012-02-22:df072c6332",
  "regulator": "FDA",
  "country": "US",
  "status": "current",
  "statusOriginal": "Current",
  "availability": "Limited Availability",
  "productName": "Epinephrine Bitartrate, Lidocaine Hydrochloride Injection",
  "activeIngredient": "Epinephrine Bitartrate, Lidocaine Hydrochloride",
  "company": "Hospira, Inc., a Pfizer Company",
  "presentation": "Lidocaine Hydrochloride and Epinephrine, Injection, 600 mg/30 mL (2%; 1:100,000) (NDC 0409-3182-02)",
  "dosageForm": "Injection",
  "therapeuticArea": "Anesthesia; Pediatric",
  "reason": "Other",
  "notes": "Limited Supply Available. Next Delivery: May 2027; Estimated Recovery: June 2027; Shortage per Manufacturer: Manufacturing Delay",
  "startDate": "2012-02-22",
  "expectedResolution": "June 2027",
  "updatedDate": "2026-10-08",
  "packageNdc": "0409-3182-02"
}

Sample EMA record from the same run:

{
  "recordId": "ema:human-normal-immunoglobulins",
  "regulator": "EMA",
  "country": "EU",
  "status": "current",
  "statusOriginal": "Shortage ongoing",
  "productName": "Human normal immunoglobulins",
  "activeIngredient": "human normal immunoglobulins",
  "presentation": "Solution for injection/infusion",
  "therapeuticArea": "Primary Immunodeficiency Diseases; Immunologic Deficiency Syndromes",
  "alternativesAvailable": "Yes",
  "startDate": "2024-06-03",
  "expectedResolution": "March 2027",
  "updatedDate": "2026-09-22",
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/medicines/human/shortages/human-normal-immunoglobulins"
}

Some fields stay empty for some regulators. EMA does not publish the company or a reason. FDA gives a reason for about one record in four. FDA has no expected resolution field, so the Actor reads it from the FDA note when the note gives an "Estimated Recovery". The Actor never guesses a missing value.

Drug shortages: how to monitor them

1. Pick the regulators. Leave the list empty for both.
2. Pick the statuses. Example: current only, for shortages that are still open.
3. Add keywords to watch an active ingredient, product or company. Example: amoxicillin, lidocaine, pfizer.
4. Turn on Monitor mode and schedule the Actor daily.
5. Connect the output to Google Sheets, Slack, email or your purchasing system through Apify integrations.

Monitor mode

Monitor mode remembers every shortage version it returned before. A later run returns a record only when it is new or when its status, availability, reason, notes, dates or expected resolution changed. changeType says which. A routine FDA reverification with no other change is not returned.

Use a different Monitor name for each watch list.

Keyword matching

Keywords search the active ingredient, product name, brand names, route, company, presentation, therapeutic area, NDC and application number. They match whole words and ignore case.

Drug shortages input options

Option	Default	Meaning
Regulators	Both	fda, ema
Shortage status	All	current, resolved, discontinued
Keywords	None	Keep only matching records
Updated in the last N days	0 (all)	Keep only records the regulator updated recently
Monitor mode	Off	Return only new or changed shortages
Monitor name	default	Name of the monitor memory. The old field stateKey still works
Maximum records	100	Stop after this many records, most recently updated first. Set 0 for no limit

Drug shortages pricing

This Actor uses pay-per-event pricing. These are the prices on 21 October 2026:

Event	Price (USD)
Actor start, one per GB of memory (the default 256 MB counts as one)	$0.02
Each shortage record saved to your dataset	$0.003 ($3 per 1,000)

Records skipped by your filters or by monitor mode cost nothing. Check the Pricing tab for the current prices.

Drug shortage sources and licences

• openFDA data is public domain under CC0. openFDA says not to rely on it for medical decisions.
• EMA allows reuse, including commercial reuse, when EMA is acknowledged as the source. Each EMA record carries that acknowledgement in sourceAttribution.
• The Actor reads two public files and APIs that need no login. It collects product and company facts only. It does not save the contact phone numbers in the FDA data.
• Always check the regulator's site before you act on a record.

Drug shortages run time

A full run of both regulators takes under half a minute.

Drug shortages FAQ

Why does one FDA shortage give many records?

FDA lists each affected package (NDC) separately. Each package can have its own availability and notes. Filter or group by activeIngredient to see one line per ingredient.

Can I get the full list?

Yes. Set maximum records to 0. A full run returns about 1,700 records.

Can an AI agent use it?

Yes. Agents can find and run it through the Apify MCP server or the Apify API. The output uses one schema for both regulators.

Which regulators does it cover?

It covers the US FDA drug shortage list through openFDA and the EMA shortages catalogue. Both come back in one schema.

How do I get alerts for new drug shortages?

Turn on monitor mode and schedule the Actor daily. Each later run returns only new shortages or shortages whose status, dates or notes changed.

Drug shortages input and output example

This input comes from a real run:

{
  "maxItems": 5,
  "keywords": [
    "lidocaine"
  ],
  "regulators": [
    "fda",
    "ema"
  ],
  "statuses": [
    "current",
    "resolved",
    "discontinued"
  ],
  "updatedWithinDays": 0,
  "monitorMode": false,
  "monitorName": "default"
}

This is one row from that run's dataset:

{
  "id": "fda:0264-9594-10:2017-10-25:90d5105dc6:bec1a1387e",
  "recordId": "fda:0264-9594-10:2017-10-25:90d5105dc6",
  "regulator": "FDA",
  "country": "US",
  "changeType": null,
  "status": "current",
  "statusOriginal": "Current",
  "availability": "Available",
  "productName": "LIDOCAINE HYDROCHLORIDE AND DEXTROSE",
  "activeIngredient": "LIDOCAINE HYDROCHLORIDE ANHYDROUS; DEXTROSE MONOHYDRATE",
  "company": "B. Braun Medical Inc.",
  "presentation": "Lidocaine Hydrochloride And Dextrose, Injection, 5 g/100 mL; .4 g/100 mL (NDC 0264-9594-10)",
  "dosageForm": "Injection",
  "therapeuticArea": "Cardiovascular",
  "reason": null,
  "notes": null,
  "alternativesAvailable": null,
  "startDate": "2017-10-25",
  "expectedResolution": null,
  "discontinuedDate": null,
  "updatedDate": "2026-10-19",
  "packageNdc": "0264-9594-10",
  "applicationNumber": "NDA019830",
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/drugshortages/dsp_ActiveIngredientDetails.cfm?AI=Lidocaine%20Hydrochloride%20Injection&st=c",
  "sourceAttribution": "Source: U.S. Food and Drug Administration, openFDA drug shortages (public domain, CC0).",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-21T11:07:04.439Z"
}

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Support

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