Reinforcing Readiness: Collaborating to End Drug Shortages

Pediatric patients should always have easy access to the medications they need.  

Unfortunately, complexities within the pharmaceutical supply chain don’t always make that possible.

In 2023, pediatric facilities experienced shortages of 84 drugs and faced at least 25% more shortages than adult facilities.

Because drugs for children are unique, and children make up a smaller portion of hospital patients, there are fewer manufacturers, making the pediatric supply chain especially vulnerable.

“Drug shortages have remained consistently high every year,” said Terri Lyle Wilson, vice president of pharmacy services at the Children’s Hospital Association (CHA). “We are making mitigation efforts a priority.”

Among those efforts is CHA’s partnership with Angels for Change, a nonprofit dedicated to ending drug shortages through advocacy, awareness, and a resilient supply chain.

Together, we’ve built a program to ensure lifesaving medications are available to patients who depend on them.

“Our relationship with CHA is central to our success at Angels for Change,” said Laura Bray, founder and chief change maker at Angels for Change. “We take bold action. And by bringing everybody together, we can end drug shortages.”

Why it matters

Generic medicines are most vulnerable to shortages. Due to their low cost, they have little market value to manufacturers, even though they are critically important to save lives.

Three years ago, CHA called the Angels for Change hotline when sodium chloride and potassium chloride, essential supplies when caring for premature newborns and young babies, were entering a shortage.

That call prompted the pilot of Project PROTECT. Bray and Wilson worked with STAQ Pharma to expedite availability and alleviate hospital concerns that the medicine might not be available. Project PROTECT provided incentive funding, and the manufacturer distributed 20,675 units to meet hospitals’ needs.

Reinforcing supply readiness

Today, Project PROTECT attempts to alleviate drug shortages by providing grants to manufacturers that proactively prepare and develop essential medicines most vulnerable to shortage.

The Angels for Change program is designed to:

• Leverage prediction technology and partnerships to identify risks before shortages occur.
• Strengthen 503B manufacturing capabilities to make sure drugs at risk of shortage are available for at least a three-year period.
• Reinforce supply readiness and capacity and stabilize the drug supply chain.

Laura Bray displays a vial of an injection solution produced at

a 503B outsourcing facility.

This initiative is a result of a collaboration with CHA and Angels for Change. CHA leverages our network of more than 200 children’s hospitals to identify drugs at risk of shortage and prioritize the essential needs of pediatric patients.

Since then, CHA has worked closely with Angels for Change to expand and ensure the availability of nine pediatric medicines.

“We live in drug shortages, in a place where it is failing every day,” Bray said. “Since the trusted work is happening between Angels for Change, CHA, and supply chain members, then no one has to tell a patient, ‘You’re not going to get the medicine today.’”

Looking ahead

CHA’s partnership with Project PROTECT demonstrates one way we are working toward a solution.

“Collaborating on projects like this to raise awareness and advance work in pediatric pharmaceuticals is a high priority,” Wilson said. “Children are disproportionately impacted by drug shortages and have unique needs that must be considered.”

But preventing drug shortages requires all of us — manufacturers, children’s hospitals, policymakers, and patient advocates.

“It is going to take everyone involved in the supply chain to reduce drug shortages and their detrimental effects on child health and children’s hospitals,” Wilson said. “It is the only way forward.”

Learn more about how Angels for Change ensures access to critical medicines for children.