Medicine Shortages Report 2024

Interruptions to the supply and availability of medicines in Australia can occur for various reasons and have a range of impacts on patients and health professionals. Medicine shortages are a global problem and unfortunately some medicine shortages are unavoidable and cause significant impact.

We closely monitor for shortages of prescription and certain over-the-counter medicines and takes action to limit their effects.

After the introduction of mandatory shortage reporting in January 2019, we published a report on the first 12 months of the mandatory reporting scheme. The 2020 report recommended various improvements to shortage reporting, communications, mitigation and arrangements for supply of alternative products. 

Since that time, the way we manage shortages has evolved significantly. This 2024 Medicine Shortages report looks at what has changed and what our data show.