National Drug Shortage: What You Should Know
There is a national shortage of several drugs commonly used in animals. These include the injectable opioid medications fentanyl, morphine, and hydromorphone, and other medications such as bupivacaine and yohimbine.
This shortage does NOT currently include transdermal fentanyl patches. However, it would be prudent to monitor for changes in the availability of fentanyl patches or other opiate medications in the event that the current shortages begin to affect related drugs.
To stay abreast of important changes, we recommend that you bookmark and review the FDA’s Current and Resolved Drug Shortages and Discontinuations Reported to the FDA webpage. Please note: this page also includes information about controlled substances.*
If these medication shortages may affect your plans for treating animals in your research program(s), please contact your ULAM Faculty Veterinarian to consult on alternative medication options. Veterinary faculty can work with your lab to determine acceptable alternative medications and provide veterinary approval for use of these drugs.
If you need assistance with contacting your faculty veterinarian, please reach out to the ULAM Business Office at ulam-questions@umich.edu or (734) 764-0277.
* Additional questions about controlled substances in research should be directed to cs-monitors@med.umich.edu.
Update to Policy on Processing and Approving Protocol Amendments
To help minimize the effects on your research, the Institutional Animal Care & Use Committee has revised the Policy on Processing and Approving Protocol Amendments
to allow for review of changes to protocols as a result of this drug shortage. Please contact your Research Compliance Associate in the Animal Care & Use Office
for more information, or for assistance with submitting a protocol amendment.
Additional Resources
- American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Current Drug Shortages webpage
- FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) Information About Animal Drug Shortages webpage
- Sign up for Drug Shortage Email Notifications from the FDA
- Download the FDA's Drug Shortages mobile application:
- iPhone/iOS devices (link will take you to the iTunes App Store)