The Concept of Medicines Shortage: Identifying and Resolving Shortage

Abstract

It is not easy to find out when scientific researches concerning shortage (scarcity) were started. In the field of first studies, authors revised time delays and variable demand, when they moved to item stock and disequilibrium analysis. Later, more sophisticated studies emerged. These involved understanding that drug shortage is affected by supply uncertainty. In the pick of popularity of the topic, the shortage was analyzed in line with logistics costs. Extra studies have become focused on lost sales, batch inspection errors and imperfect quality of products, i.e. medicine. The author of the article investigated shortage cases and the development of shortage concept. In the theoretical part, the author describes the shortage cases and historical concept changes. In the empirical part, author presents simulation results, which are provided to highlight the negative influence of handling errors on logistics costs. Finally, the study covers the aspects of medicines shortage which are undertaken to the production order quantity (EPQ) and to the contribution of inventory models and their application. The scientific literature analysis and synthesis methods are used for the study.