18 September 2018 - Prescription drug shortages may result in substitution of less effective drugs, delays in necessary treatments, and omission of or reductions in doses.

These shortages cause an estimated $230 million in additional costs each year because of the rising prices of drugs under shortage and the higher costs of substitute drugs.

Hernandez and colleagues set out to assess the association between price changes and drug shortages across the marketplace and to evaluate how price changes differ according to the number of manufacturers that supply each drug.

Read Annals of Internal Medicine article