Dry Spell
Your prescription vanished. We track who ran out, who's responsible, and what you can do about it.
Consumer-facing US drug shortage intelligence — real-time shortage dashboards, manufacturer accountability scorecards, duration timelines, alternative-drug guidance, therapeutic-area impact analysis, and weekly "shortage dispatch" briefings, all auto-generated from FDA's openAPI and delivered as a beautiful, opinionated, patient-first static site.
Niche Explored
Consumer-facing US drug shortage intelligence — real-time tracking of which medications are unavailable, which manufacturers are failing, why shortages happen, how long they last, who’s affected, and what patients can do.
Existing Competition
- FDA Drug Shortages page (accessdata.fda.gov) — the source data, but it’s a hideous bureaucratic table. No visualizations, no trends, no patient guidance, no accountability scorecards. Essentially unusable for consumers.
- ASHP Drug Shortages List — similar raw list format. Requires membership/login for full access. Pharmacist-focused, not consumer-facing.
- GoodRx — covers drug pricing and alternatives, but doesn’t do shortage tracking, trend analysis, or manufacturer accountability.
- Drug Channels Institute — industry analyst blog. Paywalled, B2B-focused, not consumer-facing.
- Patient advocacy orgs (e.g., Cancer Action Network) — occasional reports on chemo drug shortages. Siloed, not systematic, not automated.
- News outlets — reactive coverage when shortages hit crisis levels (e.g., Adderall shortage got press in 2023-2024). No continuous tracker.
Gap identified: ZERO consumer-facing, data-driven, beautifully designed, continuously updated drug shortage dashboard exists. The data is all public (FDA openAPI) but nobody has built the product layer that translates it into patient-actionable intelligence with accountability, trend analysis, and alternative-finding.
Data Sources Found
Primary — FDA Drug Shortages API (openFDA)
- URL:
https://api.fda.gov/drug/shortages.json - Free tier: 240 requests/min without API key, 120K/day with key
- Last updated: 2026-04-04 (daily updates)
- Total records: 1,693 shortage entries
- Fields: generic_name, availability status, initial_posting_date, update_type, contact_info, manufacturer info via openFDA enrichment (brand_name, manufacturer_name, product_type, route, substance_name, rxcui, NDC)
- Query capabilities: Full-text search, date ranges, counts/facets, pagination
- Key insight: Top shorted drugs are ADHD medications (Lisdexamfetamine/Vyvanse = 90 entries, Adderall = 73), anesthetics (Lidocaine, Bupivacaine, Ropivacaine), chemo drugs (Carboplatin = 29), and IV fluids (Dextrose). This is a massive story.
Secondary — FDA Drug Enforcement/Recalls API
- URL:
https://api.fda.gov/drug/enforcement.json - Free tier: Same as above
- Total records: 28,679
- Use: Correlate shortages with manufacturing quality failures, GMP violations, recalls
Tertiary — FDA Drug Adverse Events API (FAERS)
- URL:
https://api.fda.gov/drug/event.json - Use: Show what happens when patients switch to alternatives — adverse event rate changes during shortages
Additional Sources
- ClinicalTrials.gov API — trials paused/modified due to drug supply issues
- PubMed/OpenAlex API — research on health outcomes during drug shortages
- FDA Warning Letters — manufacturer compliance failures (public, scrapeable)
- USFDA recall RSS feeds — real-time alerts
- Medicare Part D data (data.cms.gov) — spending and utilization patterns showing demand
SEO Analysis
- “drug shortage” + variations: High search volume, especially when crises hit (Adderall, Ozempic, chemo drugs). Estimated 50K-200K+ monthly searches during peaks.
- Long-tail keywords: “is [drug name] in shortage”, “when will [drug] be available again”, “[drug] alternatives”, “[drug] shortage 2026” — these are precise intent queries with essentially NO good SEO content targeting them. FDA’s page ranks #1 but provides a terrible UX.
- Keyword gap: Specific drug shortage pages with manufacturer accountability, timeline data, alternative suggestions, and patient guidance would capture enormous long-tail traffic.
- Estimated SEO difficulty: Low-medium for drug-specific pages. Most competitors are news articles (one-off, quickly outdated) or the raw FDA page.
Communities
- Reddit: r/ADHD (2.7M members), r/pharmacy (200K+), r/medicine (800K+), r/cancer — all frequently discuss drug shortages
- Facebook groups: ADHD support, chronic illness communities, cancer support — millions of affected patients
- Twitter/X: #DrugShortage, pharma transparency advocates, patient advocacy orgs
- TikTok: ADHD medication shortage content gets millions of views
- Professional: American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), oncology nurses associations
Image/Graphic Feasibility
Strong. This is fundamentally a data visualization story:
- Shortage duration timelines (how long each drug has been unavailable)
- Manufacturer reliability scorecards (heatmaps)
- Drug category breakdown charts (which therapeutic areas hit hardest)
- Geographic availability maps (regional shortages)
- Historical trend lines (shortages getting worse over time)
- “Pharmacy shelf” visual metaphors
- Supply chain diagrams for individual drugs
All generatable with chart libraries (D3.js, Chart.js, Recharts) + AI-generated hero images.
Sources
- https://api.fda.gov/drug/shortages.json — openFDA Drug Shortages API (live, tested)
- https://api.fda.gov/drug/enforcement.json — FDA Drug Enforcement/Recalls (live, tested)
- https://api.fda.gov/drug/event.json — FDA Adverse Events (FAERS) (live, tested)
- https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/drugshortages/default.cfm — FDA Drug Shortages web page
- https://open.fda.gov — openFDA documentation
- https://www.ashp.org/drug-shortages — ASHP shortage list (reference, not API)