Drug Shortages: Build a Medication Buffer

The short answer: most "my pharmacy is out" moments are local and temporary, but national drug shortages are real, and FDA tracks them. A buffer you build with your prescriber and pharmacist, plus a written medicine list for each person, keeps a shortage or a storm from turning into a crisis.

What counts as a drug shortage?

FDA defines a shortage as a period when U.S. demand, or projected demand, for a drug is greater than the supply. FDA tracks shortages at the national level and lists current and resolved shortages in its Drug Shortage Database.

According to FDA's drug shortage FAQ, manufacturing quality problems are the most common cause. Production delays, late raw materials, sudden jumps in demand and discontinued products also play a part. Older sterile injectable drugs are especially exposed, because few companies make them and their production lines are limited.

What should you do if your pharmacy is out?

FDA says many of the reports it receives are local supply problems. They are usually temporary and often clear once the pharmacy can reorder from its distributor. FDA's advice to consumers:

• Check more than one pharmacy or store.
• Ask your pharmacist or health care provider whether there is an alternative.
• Report a suspected shortage through FDA's online portal. Patients can report, not just professionals.

Look your medicine up in the database before you worry. If it is not listed, the problem may be your pharmacy's supply, not the nation's.

How do you build the buffer the right way?

The goal is simple: one missed refill or one bad week should not leave anyone in your home without a medicine they need.

• Start with the official floor. The American Red Cross lists a 7-day supply of medications in its basic survival kit supplies.
• Go further only with your prescriber. FDA tells people to talk with their pharmacist or health care provider about keeping an emergency supply, to get early refills when they expect pharmacy access to be disrupted, and to learn their state's emergency refill laws. (FDA: Safe Drug Use After a Natural Disaster) Refill rules and insurance decide how far you can go, so ask rather than guess.
• Count what you have. FDA's first steps include knowing how much medicine you have on hand. Ready.gov notes that about half of all Americans take a prescription medicine every day, and that an emergency can make refills hard to get. (Ready.gov: Build a Kit)

What goes on the medicine card?

FDA recommends an up-to-date list of every medicine. We turned it into one card per person, kept with your emergency supplies and a copy of each prescription:

• Medicine name and strength
• What it is for
• How much, and when
• Medical conditions, medical supply needs and allergies
• Prescriber and pharmacy phone numbers
• Days on hand (update it monthly)

The Red Cross also lists a copy of your medication list and pertinent medical information among the documents to keep in your kit.

How do you protect what you store?

From FDA's disaster guidance:

• Keep medicine bottles and packages in watertight containers, stored where floodwater is unlikely to reach them.
• Have a plan to keep refrigerated medicines cold in an outage: a cooler and ice or frozen gel packs, following each medicine's labeled storage instructions. Our EcoFlow GLACIER review covers one powered option.
• Medicines that touched floodwater or unsafe water should be discarded, even in their original containers. FDA makes one exception: if a medicine is needed for a life-threatening condition and no replacement is available, it may be used if it appears unchanged, then replaced as soon as possible.
• If a refrigerated medicine got warm during an outage, check its storage instructions or ask a pharmacist, your provider or the manufacturer whether it can still be used.

For power planning around medicines and medical devices, see Texas Grid Alerts: A Family Power Plan.

What to do this week

• Write a medicine card for each person in your home.
• Look up each maintenance medicine in FDA's Drug Shortage Database.
• Ask your pharmacist two questions: can we refill early before a storm or a trip, and what does our state's emergency refill law allow?
• Pick the waterproof box and the cooler, and put them where you can find them in the dark.

The 72-Hour Bug-Out Bag Checklist shows where the card and a short supply fit in a go-bag.

What's changed since April (updated October 2026)

This brief first ran on April 2, 2026, as "Prescription Shortages Continue Into Q2." It said the FDA shortage list "grew again this month." FDA's database shows current shortages, not a month-by-month history, so we could not verify that April count and removed it. The original also called a 30-day buffer the "minimum floor" for households with chronic conditions. No official source sets that number, so the page now starts from the Red Cross 7-day supply and sends you to your prescriber for anything beyond it. We removed a paid product callout. Everything here now comes from FDA, the American Red Cross and Ready.gov.

Reviewed against FDA, American Red Cross and Ready.gov sources, October 2026.