Behind the Shortages: Addressing the Economic Factors Contributing to Sterile Injectable Drug Shortages
Content Release Date: 02/26/26 Expiration Date: 02/26/27 Activity Type: Application-based CE Credits: No CE Activity Fee: Free
Activity Overview
Drug shortages are an ongoing challenge leading to a variety of downstream effects including medication errors, disruptions in patient care, treatment delays, increased risk of mortality, increased risk of adverse events, and increased costs to the patient. There are many economic factors that contribute to supply disruptions, leading to drug shortages. It is imperative for pharmacists to understand the root causes of drug shortages and opportunities to help prevent or mitigate these shortages. This 1-hour non-CE educational program reviews root causes and economic factors that contribute to sterile injectable supply disruptions and drug shortages, while providing collaborative solutions for supply availability and ensuring long-term sustainability.
The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education as a provider of continuing pharmacy education with Commendation.
At the conclusion of this activity, participants should be able to:
Identify the impact of economic factors that may lead to supply disruptions and drug shortages.
Analyze healthcare system pharmacy purchasing and its influence on long-term supply availability, stability, and resiliency.
Summarize current solutions and actions key stakeholders are taking to ensure market sustainability including opportunities for collaboration to maintain a consistent long-term supply.
Michael Ganio joined the staff at ASHP as Director of Pharmacy Practice and Quality in January of 2018. As a member of the Center on Medication Safety and Quality team, his responsibilities span the practice of pharmacy and include drug shortages, pharmaceutical quality, sterile and non-sterile drug compounding practices, hazardous drug handling, and the ASHP Standardize 4 Safety initiative. Dr. Ganio earned his Pharm.D. from the Rutgers University Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy and his Master’s degree in Health-System Pharmacy Administration from The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy. He completed a PGY1 Pharmacy Practice residency at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Dr. Ganio is a Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist (BCPS) and a Board Certified Sterile Compounding Pharmacist (BCSCP).
April Giles, EMBA Executive Director End Drug Shortages Alliance Wilmington, Delaware
April Giles is the Executive Director of the End Drug Shortages Alliance, where she leads national efforts to address pharmaceutical supply challenges through collaboration, transparency, and strategic policy advocacy. With over 20 years of experience in healthcare and life sciences, April is a recognized leader in innovation, business development, and ecosystem growth.
Prior to her current role, she served as Vice President of Business Development at Fitzsimons Innovation Community, where she led infrastructure development, public-private partnerships, and innovation strategy. She also spent over a decade as President & CEO of the Colorado BioScience Association, where she helped expand the state’s bioscience industry and successfully advocated for increased funding and legislative support.
April has a strong background in workforce development, investor relations, and community engagement, having launched programs and partnerships that continue to impact the industry.
Eric Tichy, PharmD, MBA, BCPS Division Chair, Supply Chain Management Mayo Clinic Associate Professor Mayo Clinic College of Medicine & Sciences Rochester, Minnesota
Eric Tichy obtained his Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of Connecticut, completed his postgraduate pharmacy residency training at Yale New Haven Hospital and received a Master of Business Administration from Yale University School of Management. He currently works for the Mayo Clinic where he is Division Chair, Supply Chain Management responsible for the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain and Associate Professor of Pharmacy at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science.
Jesse Schafer, MBA Executive Director HIRC Rochester, Minnesota
Jesse M. Schafer is Executive Director and Co-Founder of Healthcare Industry Resilience Collaborative (HIRC), a nonprofit trade association uniting more than 90 health systems, suppliers, and partners to strengthen healthcare supply chain resiliency. Based in Rochester, Minnesota, he also serves as Senior Manager of Business Continuity for Mayo Clinic. Mr. Schafer is a nationally recognized thought leader and presenter on healthcare resilience, strategy, and innovation, having spoken at the White House, AHRMM, Gartner, Vizient, and other national forums.
In accordance with our accreditor’s Standards of Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education, ASHP requires that all individuals in control of content disclose all financial relationships with ineligible companies. An individual has a relevant financial relationship if they have had a financial relationship with an ineligible company in any dollar amount in the past 24 months and the educational content that the individual controls is related to the business lines or products of the ineligible company.
An ineligible company is any entity producing, marketing, re-selling, or distributing health care goods or services consumed by, or used on, patients. The presence or absence of relevant financial relationships will be disclosed to the activity audience.
The following persons in control of this activity’s content have relevant financial relationships:
Eric Tichy: Vertex, Lilly, GSK, Sanofi – Advisory Board
All other persons in control of content do not have any relevant financial relationships with an ineligible company. As defined by the Standards of Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education definition of ineligible company. All relevant financial relationships have been mitigated prior to the CE activity.
Per ACPE requirements, CPE credit must be claimed within 60 days of being earned – no exceptions! To verify that you have completed the required steps and to ensure your credits have been reported to CPE Monitor, we encourage you to check your NABP eProfile account to validate your credits were transferred successfully before the ACPE 60-day deadline. After the 60 day deadline, ASHP will no longer be able to award credit for this activity.
