While the total number of drug shortages in the U.S. appears to be decreasing in 2025, some shortages of essential medications have yet to be resolved.
Erin Fox, PharmD, senior pharmacy director at University of Utah Health, said a few persistent shortages continue to strain health systems, especially certain drugs essential to emergency, surgical and outpatient care.
“There are a number of ongoing shortages. But a few of them are ongoing or are becoming worse, so they are definitely top of mind,” she said.
Here are four high-impact shortages Dr. Fox said her team is focused on for the rest of 2025:
- Lorazepam injection
A sedative used across a variety of healthcare settings, Lorazepam is used to manage anxiety, nausea from chemotherapy, seizures, alcohol withdrawal and agitation.
“It’s just used so widely,” Dr. Fox said. “From the emergency department to an outpatient clinic to the operating room.”
The main root of the shortage is supply chain instability, she explained. “There’s only one supplier of that product and they are continuing to have manufacturing difficulties,” she said. “Any tiny problem can automatically cause a shortage.”
To manage this, hospitals are having to turn to oral alternatives, which is not always the most practical option.
“Inside the hospital, a lot of times it’s just so much easier to reach for an injection,” Dr. Fox said. “But wherever we can, we’re trying to switch people to use an oral treatment.”
- Injectable steroids
Shortages of injectable steroids are impacting orthopedic care, pain management and joint injections — procedures that affect thousands of patients every day.
“We’re also seeing shortages of injectable steroids, which are used in a lot of orthopedic clinics and a lot of orthopedic procedures as kind of like a joint injection, you know, to help with patients’ pain,” she said.
Though not always as high profile compared to other shortages, these supply issues ripple across specialties. “It’s kind of a scramble right now,” Dr. Fox said. “That’s just a really essential drug and it affects a very large number of patients.”
Dr. Fox emphasized that though the total number of drug shortages may be falling, shortages of these core treatments still take a toll on patients and providers who need to pivot and find alternatives.
- IV fluids
Though Baxter’s North Carolina plant has been to recover from damage sustained from a hurricane in 2024, its impact continues to disrupt some IV supplies. Baxter manufactures 60% of IV solutions in the U.S.
Dr. Fox noted that with hurricane season approaching, it is important to closely watch IV fluid supplies, especially since the system has yet to fully recover from 2024’s disruptions.
- Generic injectables
While Dr. Fox said current shortages are not limited to any one therapeutic area, generic injectable medications remain among the most consistently strained products.
“There’s so much uncertainty,” she said. “You know, now we are hearing things like 200% tariffs on pharmaceuticals. So far we haven’t actually seen tariffs on pharmaceuticals. So it’s just hard to know what will actually happen.”
If the tariffs do take effect, she warned, it could severely impact generic injectables and already fragile manufacturing operations.
“I think we would definitely have shortages of generic injectables, right? Because those companies cannot absorb any added costs for products that they’re already having trouble making that have very slim economic margins.”
EHR’s role
At University of Utah Health, Dr. Fox’s team is leaning heavily on its EHR to help prescribers adapt to changes related to drug shortages.
“We actually focus a lot of our efforts on the electronic health record,” she said. “So we will make changes there, just to make sure that everyone’s aware. The providers can see that at the point of ordering, this Lorazepam injection is short, maybe I can switch it to an oral product, and that can happen right at the time of ordering.”
