Canadian drug shortages, tracked live

Check whether any medication is in shortage in Canada, which manufacturers are affected, and when supply is expected back. Built from the reports every manufacturer is legally required to file with Health Canada, aggregated per drug and refreshed through the day.

Drugs in shortage
548
Critical (Tier 3)
15
Updates this week
152
Resolved this week
22
Estimates slipped
36

Widespread shortages right now

Drugs where half or more of reported products are affected, or Health Canada has assigned its most serious (Tier 3) designation.

Captopril Widespread shortage 6 of 9 reported products affected Imipramine Widespread shortage 3 of 6 reported products affected · est. return Oct 2, 2026 Buspirone Widespread shortage 4 of 8 reported products affected · est. return Aug 27, 2026 Famotidine (Acid Control) Widespread shortage 3 of 13 reported products affected · est. return Nov 30, 2026 Cefepime Widespread shortage 2 of 3 reported products affected · est. return Sep 11, 2026 Ticagrelor Widespread shortage 2 of 4 reported products affected · est. return Jul 31, 2026

All current shortages → · Anticipated →

Critical (Tier 3) shortages

Health Canada's most serious designation: drugs with few or no alternatives where the shortage has the greatest health-system impact.

Famotidine (Acid Control) Widespread shortage 3 of 13 reported products affected · est. return Nov 30, 2026 Dexamethasone Widespread shortage 4 of 6 reported products affected · est. return Oct 2, 2026 Spironolactone (Aldactone) Widespread shortage 6 of 8 reported products affected · est. return Aug 30, 2026 Dextrose Widespread shortage 1 of 13 reported products affected · est. return Nov 30, 2026 Peginterferon Alfa-2a (Pegasys) Widespread shortage 1 of 1 reported products affected Verteporfin (Visudyne) Widespread shortage 1 of 1 reported products affected · est. return Dec 31, 2026

All 15 critical shortages →

Latest changes

All recent changes →

Browse by drug class

antidepressants17 of 20 drugs in shortageantiglaucoma preparations and miotics15 of 18 drugs in shortagedirect acting antivirals15 of 34 drugs in shortageantipsychotics11 of 18 drugs in shortageace inhibitors, plain10 of 11 drugs in shortageantiepileptics10 of 15 drugs in shortageantithrombotic agents10 of 25 drugs in shortageblood glucose lowering drugs, excl. insulins10 of 20 drugs in shortage

All therapeutic classes →

If your medication is affected

Don't stop or ration a medication because of a shortage; for many drugs that is more dangerous than the shortage itself. Start at the pharmacy counter: pharmacists can usually substitute an unaffected manufacturer's version, adjust strengths or forms, and in most provinces adapt or renew prescriptions on the spot. If every manufacturer is short, a prescriber can select an alternative treatment. Free health advice is one call away at 811 in every province.

The full playbook: what to do when your medication is in shortage.

Why shortages happen

A few hundred drugs are in shortage in Canada on any given day, mostly from manufacturing disruptions in a heavily consolidated global supply chain, sometimes from demand surges like the ones behind the amoxicillin and Ozempic shortages. Most resolve quietly through pharmacy substitution; the dangerous ones are molecule-wide. That difference, one supplier down versus all of them, is what every rxstat drug page computes. More: why drug shortages happen in Canada and how to read shortage reports.

Guides

What to do when your medication is in shortage How to read shortage reports and their estimated end dates Why drug shortages happen in Canada

All guides →

About this data

Since 2017, manufacturers must report shortages and discontinuations to Health Canada. rxstat syncs that database through the day, groups the per-company filings into one page per drug, and records every change, including estimated end dates that slip. The methodology page has the full rules. rxstat is an independent Canadian project by the maker of erstat.ca, the ER wait time tracker.