After working for a decade in a job she loved as a community pharmacist in Victoria, BC, Stefanie Black was looking for a better way to impact healthcare, that involved more than one patient at a time.

She set her sights on finding a role with the British Columbia Ministry of Health, where she hoped to leverage her experience and expertise on initiatives to support patients throughout the province. Around the same time, in the Fall of 2020, she began  a Master of Health Administration degree at the University of British Columbia.

Black had no way of knowing an opportunity at the Ministry of Health would bring her career and her academic goals together on an aligned path examining drug shortages and looking at solutions to ensure access.

Black was hired by the Ministry in February 2021 as a drug shortages pharmacist and assigned to chair the Provincial and Territorial Task Team on Drug Shortages, while a colleague was on maternity leave. The national task team coordinates with the health system to confirm and assess shortages, notifies Health Canada when facilitation is needed and works with stakeholders to execute conservation strategies.

“It’s one of the most collaborative teams I’ve ever been part of,” Black says. “There’s a lot of inter-provincial sharing. People really come together to make sure all Canadian patients have access to drugs.”

As she led the task team, Black realized the issue of drug shortages would make an ideal research topic for the capstone project of her MHA.

“Everything just came together for me to focus on drug shortages. I fell in love with it. I was so fascinated by the difference of drug shortages compared to regular market conditions.”

Black’s recently completed qualitative research, Improving Drug Supply Chain Resiliency: Perspectives on Causes, Prevention and Mitigation of Drug Shortages in Canada, is based on interviews with stakeholder participants from Health Canada, group purchasing organizations, provincial Ministry of Health, regional health authorities, the Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists, and the Canadian Medical Association

While there can be multiple contributing factors that cause drug shortages, Black’s research points to pricing, manufacturer consolidation and procurement policies – such as sole-source contracts – as key reasons Canada is susceptible to shortages of various medications.

“Canada tries to drive prices down because we want to spend taxpayer dollars wisely, but that can reduce incentive for companies to come to market or bring new drugs to market, including low-usage drugs,” she says.

Because there are also so many players in the supply chain who can affect the production, distribution and use of drugs, Black’s research concludes that fostering greater collaboration among all players will help avert drug shortages and ensure supply-chain resilience.

“More collaboration is in the best interest of everybody, including industry,” says Black.

All inferences, opinions, and conclusions drawn in this research report are those of the author, and do not reflect the opinions or policies of the Government of British Columbia, where Stefanie Black works for the Ministry of Health.