What drug shortage lists show in 2026, and what they leave out

Medicine shortages have shifted over the past two years from a problem managed in hospital pharmacies to a matter of industrial and trade policy on both sides of the Atlantic. Active shortages in the USA peaked in early 2024 and have since fallen, while Europe has built a list of critical medicines, a reporting platform and, in May 2026, a provisional deal on its Critical Medicines Act.

The official responses now form a timeline that runs from the FDA's analysis of root causes in 2019, through the first version of the EU's list of critical medicines in December 2023 and mandatory shortage reporting across Europe from February 2025, to the European Commission's proposal for the Critical Medicines Act in March 2025, two US executive orders later that year, and a phased tariff on imported generics announced by Donald Trump in July 2026.