A Quantitative Analysis of the Causes of Drug Shortages in Jordan: A Supply Chain Perspective

Hala Awad,Zu'Bi M.F Al-Zu'Bi,Ayman Bahjat Abdallah

doi:10.5539/ibr.v9n6p53

Abstract

<p>This study investigates the causes of drug shortage in Jordan. Based on thorough literature review, five causes related to supply chain were identified, namely regulatory and legislative processes, manufacturing-related issues, distribution factors, supply and demand imbalance, and human factors.</p><p>Data were collected from 221 professionals selected from Jordan Food and Drug Administration (JFDA), pharmaceutical manufacturing sector, hospital professionals, and other nodes in the supply chain including distributors and wholesalers. Multiple-regression analysis was used to test the hypothesized relationships. The results indicate that four causes are significantly related to drug shortages in Jordan, regulatory and legislative processes, distribution factors, human factors, and supply and demand imbalance. Manufacturing-related issues are not significantly related to drug shortages. Implications and recommendations for the decision makers are proposed on the basis of the study results.</p>

Highlights

Securing the supply of medications and ensuring meeting the needs of end customers in term of accessibility, quality, quantity, and cost of medications are at the top of any health care system priorities (Abdollahiasl et al, 2014)
Pharmaceutical supply chain is susceptible to many risks leading to wasting valuable resources and to disrupting the availability of medications resulting in the growing problem of drug shortages
A widely used technique to test for multicollinearity is variance inflation factor (VIF)

Summary

Introduction

Securing the supply of medications and ensuring meeting the needs of end customers in term of accessibility, quality, quantity, and cost of medications are at the top of any health care system priorities (Abdollahiasl et al, 2014). The root causes of medication shortages are complicated and involve many factors at the different nodes of the supply chain; including manufacturing issues, regulatory and legislative issues, business and market factors, supply and demand issues, distribution factors, natural disasters, inventory issues, and the human factors. Each of these factors can be influenced by a number of sub factors. Regulatory processing can be affected by lengthy new drug approval procedures and natural disasters that include the breakout of pandemic diseases (Gu et al, 2011; Ventola, 2011)

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