Canada Reports Nearly 2,600 Drug Shortages in 2024-25, Down 20% From Previous Year

Canada experiences the largest number of medical supply shortages in the world, according to Anne Snowdon, who has been researching the country’s medical supply system for more than 15 years. More than 3,000 medical supply shortages happen each year in Canada and they last longer compared with other countries.

“In health care you can’t afford that disruption, because patients can’t get care that they desperately need,” Snowdon said.

In 2024-25 there were nearly 2,600 drug shortages reported in Canada, a decrease of 20 per cent compared to the previous year, Health Canada said. “Most reported shortages are successfully managed before they impact patients,” said Health Canada spokesperson Marie-Pier Burelle. Cbc reported that although the numbers remain high, most drug shortages are resolved without reaching patients.

Snowdon, a nurse who worked on the front lines during the SARS epidemic in 2003, is less than a year away from completing a five-year grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council tasked Anne Snowdon with coming up with solutions to medical supply issues.

She is working with Health Canada, Public Health Agency of Canada, local and regional health systems and supply chain teams to implement solutions.

Healthcare providers in Atlantic Canada are collaborating on obtaining supplies, Snowdon said. During the COVID-19 pandemic each hospital in Canada was competing for supplies like N-95 masks. “We're too small to compete against each other,” she said.

An AI-driven platform has been created so healthcare organizations can search for specific Health Canada-approved products and where they are made, Snowdon said. She is working with the University of Windsor's Cross Border Institute on adding information about supplies from other parts of the world to the platform. “So that when there’s geo-political conflict or a weather event ...

Knowing what products rely on those logistics and distribution channels,” said Snowdon. HealthPRO Canada is the national lead in medical supply procurement. Its CEO Christine Donaldson is pushing for stronger integration of information around Canada’s healthcare supply chain.

There is currently no national-scale ability in Canada to know how a major weather event in a specific part of the world would impact medical supply access, Donaldson said. There is a lack of digital infrastructure in Canada to keep track of how many Canadians need a particular medical supply in the event of a shortage, Snowdon said. ” Snowdon asked.

When healthcare products are recalled there is also no broader system in Canada to know which patients are impacted or to notify Canadians if a medical device inside their body is recalled, she added. On Wednesday Health Canada announced the launch of a new voluntary registry to send out alerts about breast implant recalls and safety issues.

Snowdon had highlighted tracking of patients with breast implants as one example of the existing gap.

HealthPRO Canada now splits drug contracts into two separate manufacturers instead of awarding to one company, Donaldson said. “That way they can help each other out if by chance there is some kind of supply disruption — and we actually have contractual terms that obligate them to help each other during any shortages,” she said.

The organization maintains a 90-day supply of critical drugs to create a buffer in the event of a shortage.

Canada makes up two per cent of the global demand for pharmaceuticals, Donaldson noted. Supply Ontario points to the Buy Ontario Procurement Directive as supporting Canadian suppliers. Donaldson said the best approach mixes investing in domestic capacity with working alongside the global supplier network because “Canada can’t do it all.

A SARS Commission in Ontario made more than 200 recommendations after the 2003 epidemic. Only one of the more than 200 SARS Commission recommendations was implemented, Snowdon said. “When I looked at what the recommendations were, they are almost exactly the same as the challenges we had during COVID,” she said.

“How did we not learn the lessons from that?