Frontiers in pharmacology
Frequency, causes, and duration of drug shortages in South Korea, 2018-2024: a nationwide descriptive analysis of regulatory reporting data and temporal patterns across the COVID-19 pandemic
Door Kim JY, Shin EY, Park JW en 8 anderen.
Inhoud in het Engels
Abstract
Background
Drug shortages threaten treatment continuity and health-system resilience, yet empirical evidence from South Korea remains limited.
Methods
We conducted a nationwide, retrospective descriptive analysis of 868 drug products (1,054 shortage reports) officially reported to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) between January 2018 and February 2024. Shortages were characterized by frequency, reported cause (six categories), and duration, and compared between reportable and non-reportable drugs. Duration analyses were restricted to 360 temporary supply disruptions. To examine COVID-19-related temporal patterns, temporary supply disruptions during 2018-2023 were grouped into pre-COVID-19 (2018-2019), COVID-19 (2020-2021), and later COVID-19 (2022-2023) periods, defined a priori around the WHO pandemic declaration. Continuous variables were summarized as median (interquartile range, IQR) and categorical variables as counts (%). Analyses were descriptive; no causal inference was intended.