Drug Shortages and Personal Injury Cases: How Attorneys Can Protect Client Access

James Wong — Founder & CEO, LienScripts | March 4, 2026 | 7 min read

Drug shortages in 2026 affect medications commonly prescribed after accidents, creating treatment gaps for PI plaintiffs. LienScripts pharmacy lien services leverage multi-pharmacy networks to source medications even during supply disruptions.

Drug shortages in the United States reached record levels in 2025 and continue into 2026, affecting over 300 medications at any given time. Many of these shortages impact medications commonly prescribed to personal injury patients, including injectable corticosteroids, certain muscle relaxants, generic pain medications, and anti-inflammatory drugs. For personal injury attorneys, drug shortages create a hidden case management risk: even when a client has insurance or a pharmacy lien in place, the prescribed medication may simply be unavailable. LienScripts pharmacy lien services mitigate this risk through a network pharmacy model that sources medications from multiple suppliers and identifies therapeutic alternatives when shortages occur.

• Over 300 medications are in shortage status nationally, including drugs commonly prescribed for injury-related conditions
• Drug shortages can delay treatment by days to weeks while prescribers identify alternatives
• LienScripts leverages a multi-pharmacy network to locate medications across multiple distribution channels
• Pharmacist review at LienScripts identifies clinically equivalent alternatives when shortages prevent dispensing
• LienScripts generates a MERIT (Medication Evaluation & Rationale for Injury Treatment) report for every case, providing pharmacist-signed documentation for demand packages

Which Injury Medications Are Affected by Shortages

Drug shortages disproportionately affect generic injectable medications, sterile preparations, and older generic formulations. For personal injury patients, the following categories are frequently affected:

Injectable corticosteroids. Methylprednisolone injections used for acute inflammation after injury have experienced recurring shortages. These injections are commonly administered in emergency departments and pain management clinics for acute spinal and joint injuries.

Generic muscle relaxants. Certain formulations of methocarbamol and cyclobenzaprine have experienced intermittent shortages, forcing prescribers to substitute with alternative agents that may have different side effect profiles.

Generic NSAIDs. Specific formulations of indomethacin, ketorolac injection, and meloxicam have appeared on the FDA shortage list. These medications are foundational to injury-related anti-inflammatory therapy.

Nerve pain medications. Generic gabapentin supply has been stable, but certain dosage strengths and extended-release formulations have experienced spot shortages that affect patients who need specific dosing.

According to James Wong, PharmD, founder of LienScripts, "Drug shortages are an invisible problem for attorneys. The prescription gets written, the patient goes to the pharmacy, and the medication is not in stock. With a standard retail pharmacy, the patient just waits. With LienScripts, the pharmacist actively sources the medication from alternative suppliers or coordinates with the prescriber on a clinically equivalent substitute."

How Shortages Create Treatment Gaps

When a pharmacy does not have a medication in stock due to a shortage, the typical process is:

1. The pharmacy informs the patient the medication is unavailable
2. The patient contacts the prescriber to request an alternative
3. The prescriber evaluates alternatives and writes a new prescription
4. The patient returns to the pharmacy with the new prescription

This cycle can take days to weeks depending on prescriber availability, the prescriber's familiarity with alternatives, and whether the alternative itself is also in shortage. During this time, the personal injury patient goes without the prescribed medication.

For attorneys building medication documentation for demand packages, unexplained gaps in medication dispensing weaken the narrative of consistent treatment. Defense counsel may argue that gaps indicate the plaintiff was not in sufficient pain to pursue medications aggressively.

How LienScripts Manages Shortages

The LienScripts pharmacy network model provides several advantages during drug shortages:

Multi-Source Procurement

LienScripts works with network pharmacies that have access to multiple wholesale distributors. When one supplier is out of stock, the pharmacy can source from alternative wholesalers or secondary distributors. This multi-source approach resolves many shortages that affect single-location retail pharmacies.

Pharmacist-Driven Therapeutic Substitution

When a medication is genuinely unavailable from any supplier, LienScripts pharmacists coordinate directly with the prescriber to identify a clinically equivalent alternative. This proactive pharmacist-prescriber communication happens faster than the patient-initiated process at a typical retail pharmacy.

Shortage Monitoring

LienScripts tracks FDA shortage listings and distributor allocation notices proactively. When a shortage is anticipated for a medication used by active patients, the pharmacy can secure supply in advance or initiate prescriber conversations about alternatives before the patient runs out.

Impact on Case Strategy

Document Shortage-Related Delays

If a client experienced treatment delays due to drug shortages before enrolling in the pharmacy lien, document those delays. The MERIT report captures the medication timeline from lien enrollment forward, and prescriber records can document the pre-enrollment shortage gap.

Anticipate Defense Arguments

Defense counsel may seize on medication gaps caused by shortages and argue that the plaintiff did not seek treatment diligently. Proactive documentation of the shortage, including FDA shortage listings showing the medication was nationally unavailable, counters this argument.

Discuss Alternatives with Clients

Attorneys should inform clients that if their pharmacy cannot fill a prescription due to a shortage, they should contact the law firm immediately so the firm can coordinate with LienScripts. Quick communication prevents unnecessary treatment gaps.

For broader guidance on medication access when insurance creates barriers, the pharmacy lien model addresses both insurance obstacles and supply chain disruptions.

The Broader Shortage Trend

Drug shortages are driven by manufacturing consolidation, limited profit margins on generic medications, raw material supply chain disruptions, and quality control issues at manufacturing facilities. These structural problems are not expected to resolve quickly, meaning attorneys should anticipate that drug shortages will continue to affect personal injury cases for the foreseeable future.

Establishing a pharmacy lien through LienScripts at the start of every case provides the best protection against shortage-related treatment disruptions. The multi-pharmacy network, proactive shortage monitoring, and pharmacist-driven therapeutic management ensure that personal injury patients receive appropriate medications regardless of supply chain conditions.