What's up with all the drug shortages?

As hospitalists we brace ourselves for the shortage of the month. It's usually an older drug, often a generic, and one you'd least expect.

A pharmacist blogging over at Science Based Medicine offers an interesting analysis. The supply chain is complex and, it seems, the problem is multifactorial, but with a common theme: under increasing regulatory and economic pressure industry players are consolidating and restructuring. So now we need a new field. If pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics address what happens once a drug is inside the patient, what about getting the drug to the patient? Pharmacologistics?