Medicine shortages in Australia, explained
What a shortage report is, who files it, what each status means, and what it can and cannot tell you about your own prescription. A general explainer, in plain English. Free for everyone, no account needed. Not medical advice.
Being told at the pharmacy counter that a medicine is not available is unsettling, and the first thing most people want is a straight answer about what that actually means. Australia has a public register of medicine shortages, kept by the Therapeutic Goods Administration. This page explains what is in it, what its words mean, and where its limits are, so that a listing you find there tells you something useful rather than only worrying you.
This is a general explainer about how shortage reporting works. It cannot tell you whether any particular medicine is affected, and it does not try to. That is what the full register is for, and the conversation that follows belongs with your pharmacist and your doctor.
What a shortage report actually is
A shortage report is not the regulator noticing something. It is a supplier telling the regulator. The company responsible for a product in Australia reports to the Therapeutic Goods Administration when supply of that product will not meet demand, and the TGA publishes what it has been told on a public register. That order matters, because it explains most of what the register can and cannot do.
A record is one product, not one medicine. Australian products are registered individually by brand, strength, dose form and pack size, and a shortage is reported against each affected registration. So one medicine in short supply can appear on the register several times over, once for each affected product, and a count of reports always runs higher than a count of medicines affected. Any figure elsewhere on this site that counts reports says so beside the figure.
A shortage rarely means nothing is available. Because reporting is per product, it is common for some brands, strengths or pack sizes to be affected while others are not. A listing on the register is the beginning of a question for your pharmacist, not the answer to it.
The TGA does not publish a reason for a shortage, so Voxsanity cannot show one. Nothing on this page is an explanation of why supply is affected — that information is not in the source and is not inferred here.
This is national information. The TGA records shortages for Australia as a whole. There is no state, territory or pharmacy-level stock information in this data, and Voxsanity cannot tell you whether a particular pharmacy has a medicine in stock. Your pharmacist can.
What each status means
Every record on the register carries one of four statuses, and they are not four shades of the same thing. Two of them describe supply that is affected now or expected to be; two describe supply that is not.
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Current shortage
The TGA records this medicine as being in shortage now. A shortage often affects some brands, strengths or pack sizes and not others, so a supply of the medicine may still be available. Your pharmacist can tell you what is in stock and what alternatives exist.
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Shortage expected
The supplier has told the TGA it expects this medicine to go into shortage. It has not necessarily done so yet. Your pharmacist can tell you what is in stock now.
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Shortage resolved
The TGA records this shortage as over. Supply reaching individual pharmacies can still take time after a shortage is resolved, so your pharmacy may not have restocked yet.
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Discontinued
The supplier has told the TGA it is permanently stopping supply of this product in Australia. This is not a temporary shortage. Other brands or strengths of the same medicine may still be available, and your doctor or pharmacist can advise on what to do next.
A shortage that has been running for years is not necessarily a severe one. It often means alternative brands or strengths have remained available throughout, which is why a long entry on the register and a genuine problem getting a prescription filled are different things.
If a medicine you take is affected
The register is information, not instruction. Nothing on it is a reason to stop a prescription, skip a dose, or change how you take something. It is a reason to ask a question early rather than at the counter on the day you run out.
Your pharmacist is the person who can actually answer it. They can see what is in stock, they know which brands and strengths of a given medicine are interchangeable, and they can talk to your prescriber where a change needs one. Three questions worth having ready:
- 1Is every brand and strength affected, or only some? Reporting is per product, so the answer is often only some, and that is usually the fastest route to a solution.
- 2Is there an alternative that would suit me? Whether one exists, and whether it needs a new prescription, depends on the medicine and on you, which is why this is a question for a person and not for a register.
- 3Should I speak to my prescriber before my next repeat? If the answer is yes, an appointment booked now is worth more than one booked in a fortnight.
What this information cannot tell you
The register is genuinely useful and it is narrower than most people expect. Four limits are worth knowing before you rely on it, and each of them runs in the same direction: the register knows less than you would like, never more.
- It does not cover your pharmacy. There is no state, territory or pharmacy-level stock information in this data of any kind.
- It does not say why. The reason for a supply problem is not a published field, so no honest republication of this data can offer one.
- It does not say how many people are affected. That figure is not published, and a count of affected products is not a substitute for it.
- Counts of reports understate. Voxsanity holds what the register says now, with no day-by-day history of its own, so a report the TGA has since withdrawn cannot be counted anywhere on this site. Every count here is a floor. It can understate what happened and it cannot overstate it.
Where to go from here
This page is the overview. What comes next depends on what brought you here.
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You want to look up a particular medicine
The full register is republished here in plain English, with a page for each medicine that carries every affected product, the status of each, the dates the TGA records, and the supplier's own management advice where there is any. Free, and no account needed.
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You want the picture across the register rather than one medicine
How long the open shortages have been running, which kinds of medicine are most affected, and when the shortages on the register today actually began. That is the page for a question about the system rather than about a prescription.
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You are asking about a condition rather than a medicine
Every condition we track has its own page, with the clinical trials that are open and have a site in Australia. Where the register lists a shortage affecting a medicine used for that condition, the condition page says so. That is the page to read before an appointment.
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You want to be told when something changes
The register changes, and it does not announce itself. Follow a medicine from its page and you get an email when the TGA's recorded status for it changes. That is free, with no plan and no subscription, because the permission this data is published under requires it to stay free for everyone.
Source: Medicine Shortage Reports Database, Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), © Commonwealth of Australia, reproduced with permission. The TGA does not endorse Voxsanity, and nothing here is presented as a TGA view. Shortage information is free for everyone on this site, with no account and no subscription.
Not medical advice. Information on this site does not constitute medical advice. Data is sourced from public government registries and other public data sources. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before making any health decisions, and speak to your pharmacist about a specific medicine.