Antibiotic Shortages: How Drug Shortages Are Putting Infections Out of Reach

When a child gets pneumonia or a woman develops a urinary tract infection, the expectation is simple: a few days of antibiotics, and they’ll get better. But in 2025, that’s no longer guaranteed. Across the U.S., Europe, and low-income countries alike, antibiotic shortages are turning routine treatments into life-or-death gambles. Hospitals are rationing penicillin. Clinicians are turning to toxic last-resort drugs. And patients are being sent home with no medicine at all.

Why Antibiotics Are Running Out

Antibiotics aren’t like other drugs. They’re cheap, old, and made in bulk-mostly in India and China. That’s the problem. Because they cost pennies per dose, manufacturers don’t make much profit. Meanwhile, the cost to meet safety standards has jumped 34% since 2015. Factories that produce sterile injectables need expensive clean rooms, strict quality controls, and constant inspections. Few companies want to invest when the return is so low.

Add to that: supply chain chaos. Brexit alone pushed UK antibiotic shortages from 648 in 2020 to over 1,600 in 2023. Geopolitical tensions, shipping delays, and raw material shortages have made it harder to keep even basic antibiotics in stock. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration listed 147 active antibiotic shortages as of December 2024-the highest in a decade.

And it’s not just about quantity. It’s about quality. Many of the most needed antibiotics-like penicillin G benzathine, amoxicillin, and ceftriaxone-are generic. No company wants to be the one to build a new plant for a drug that sells for $2 a vial. So when one factory shuts down or faces an inspection failure, the entire global supply can collapse.

What Happens When Antibiotics Disappear

Imagine you’re a doctor treating a simple UTI. The go-to drug, amoxicillin, is gone. Your next option? A broader-spectrum antibiotic like ceftriaxone. But here’s the catch: over 40% of E. coli and 55% of K. pneumoniae are already resistant to those. So you move to carbapenems-the last line of defense. Now you’re not just treating the infection. You’re accelerating the rise of superbugs.

This isn’t hypothetical. A 2025 survey of U.S. hospital pharmacists found that 78% had to change treatment plans because of shortages. Sixty-two percent saw more patients get sicker, longer, or end up in the ICU. In California, one infectious disease specialist told the APHA forum she had to use colistin-a drug so toxic it causes kidney failure-for a routine bladder infection. Colistin is reserved for when everything else fails. Now it’s being used because nothing else was available.

In low-resource settings, the impact is even worse. A nurse in rural Kenya described sending patients home without antibiotics because penicillin wasn’t in stock. In Mumbai, a mother waited 72 hours for azithromycin to treat her child’s pneumonia. By the time it arrived, the infection had worsened. The child needed intensive care.

The Global Divide

High-income countries can scramble to import drugs or shift to alternatives. But in many low- and middle-income countries, 70% of antibiotics are already inaccessible. The WHO calls this a “syndemic”-a deadly mix of antibiotic resistance and lack of access. In the WHO South-East Asian and Eastern Mediterranean regions, one in three infections is resistant to first-line antibiotics. In Africa, it’s one in five. Yet these regions have the least access to even basic treatments.

The result? More deaths from treatable infections. More children dying of pneumonia. More mothers losing babies to sepsis. And more people surviving infections only to face lifelong disability from complications.

What’s Being Done-And Why It’s Not Enough

Some hospitals are fighting back. Johns Hopkins Hospital cut unnecessary broad-spectrum antibiotic use by 37% during shortages by using rapid diagnostic tests to identify infections faster. California launched a regional sharing network that cut critical shortage impacts by 43% across 15 hospitals. These work-but they’re rare.

The WHO launched a five-point plan in October 2025, including a $500 million Global Antibiotic Supply Security Initiative. The U.S. FDA approved two new manufacturing facilities in January 2025, expected to relieve 15% of shortages by late 2025. The European Commission is pushing new rules to protect antibiotic production by 2026.

But here’s the truth: none of this fixes the root problem. The global antibiotic market grew just 1.2% from 2019 to 2024-far below the 5.7% average for all pharmaceuticals. Companies aren’t investing because there’s no money in it. And until governments pay more for these drugs-or guarantee production-shortages will keep getting worse.

What You Can Do

You won’t fix the supply chain. But you can help stop the cycle of resistance.

- Don’t pressure your doctor for antibiotics if you have a cold or the flu. Viruses don’t respond to them.

- Take your full course if you’re prescribed antibiotics-even if you feel better. Stopping early breeds resistant bacteria.

- Ask your pharmacy if they’re using alternative antibiotics. If they’re switching drugs often, it might signal a shortage.

- Support policies that fund antibiotic production. Public pressure can push governments to act.

The Future Is Uncertain

Without major changes, the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance predicts antibiotic shortages will grow by 40% by 2030. That could mean 1.2 million extra deaths each year from infections we used to treat in a week.

The tools to fix this exist. Better diagnostics. Stronger supply chains. Fairer pricing. But they need funding, political will, and public awareness. Right now, we’re treating antibiotic shortages like a pharmacy problem. They’re not. They’re a global health emergency.

What’s Being Done to Fix It

The World Health Organization’s 2025 Global Antibiotic Resistance Surveillance Report shows that only 58% of global antibiotic use comes from the "Access" group-drugs that are safe, effective, and affordable. The WHO wants that to be 70% by 2030. We’re falling behind.

In the U.S., 82% of hospitals now have antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs), up from 50% in 2017. But only 37% meet all WHO standards. That means most hospitals are still guessing when antibiotics run out.

Some countries are trying new models. The UK’s National Health Service now tracks antibiotic use in real time and flags shortages before they hit hospitals. In Australia, a pilot program in Adelaide connects regional pharmacies to share stock during crises. It’s small-but it works.

The key? Don’t wait for a crisis to act. Hospitals that set up response teams early-before drugs disappear-see fewer complications, fewer deaths, and less resistance.

Why This Isn’t Just About Medicine

Antibiotics are the foundation of modern medicine. Without them, surgeries become dangerous. Chemotherapy becomes deadly. C-sections carry high risk of infection. Even a scraped knee can turn fatal.

This isn’t just about running out of pills. It’s about losing the ability to treat the most basic infections. And once we lose that, we lose more than medicine-we lose safety.

The next time you hear about a drug shortage, don’t think of it as a supply issue. Think of it as a warning. The world is running out of time to fix antibiotics. And the cost? Lives.