Drug data · shortage, price, volume

Heparin injection: 37 months on the FDA shortage list while the generic benchmark price fell 40% since 2021

The FDA says supply is short. The pharmacy benchmark says the generic injectable now costs $1.22 per mL, against $2.32 in 2013. Both are true, and they measure different things: availability on one side, the average price pharmacies pay on the other.

FDA shortage list, 2026-10-27NADAC, October 2026Medicaid SDUDinferred monthno data

The injectable has been on the FDA list continuously since October 2023, 37 months. Before that it was listed from June 2014 to January 2015, so it has been listed in 45 of the 149 months since June 2014.
Only 27% of shortage listings since 2014 have lasted this long. The median listing lasts 20 months.
A generic 5000 unit/mL injectable costs pharmacies $1.22 per mL on the NADAC benchmark in October 2026, 40% below its 2021 median.
Medicaid paid for 15,745 injectable prescriptions in Q4 2025, 14% more than in Q4 2021. Fills rose across a stretch in which the injectable was listed as short in 45 of 149 months.

Not medical advice. This page reports public records about supply and pharmacy cost. Ask a pharmacist or prescriber about your own medication.

Three clocks on one timeline

Each lane uses the same monthly axis, so you can read across: when the FDA listed the injectable, what pharmacies were paying, and how many Medicaid prescriptions were filled.

on the listinferred across a missing captureno capture or no price$ per mLprescriptionspreliminary quarter

Swipe the chart sideways to see all 14 years.

Top: months the injectable name was on the FDA list (Wayback captures of the FDA page; the current FDA record says posted 2017-11-14). Middle: NADAC per mL, one line per strength. Where NADAC reported no price for a strength for more than two months, the line breaks and the gap is hatched: we do not bridge missing prices. Bottom: Medicaid prescriptions per quarter. Medicaid volume: 25,700 rows pulled for this drug, 16,015 (62%) suppressed by CMS for small cells and left out, never counted as zero, so every bar is a floor; state XX national rows excluded; the hatched latest quarter is preliminary. Fills also move with Medicaid enrollment, so a change is not by itself evidence of a shortage.

How long do shortages last?

Each step is a drop in the share of FDA shortage listings still running. The dot is this drug.

Kaplan-Meier on 430 listings, 2014 to 2026, by ingredient. 18 months have no capture and are bridged by inference.

What a pharmacy pays per unit

NADAC is the average price retail pharmacies pay, per mL.

NADAC prices this form per mL. It is acquisition cost, not a retail price.

Which forms are short

FDA listing by dosage form
Form	Listed now	Months listed	FDA records (2026-10-27)
injectable	Yes, since October 2023	37	1 unavailable, 3 limited availability, 4 available (8 records)
oral liquid	No	0	none

Price by strength

Injectable: generic acquisition cost per mL by strength
Strength	Now	2021 median	First month	Now vs 2021	History	NDCs
5000 unit/mL	$1.22	$2.04	$2.322013-11	-40%		14
10000 unit/mL	$2.20	n/a	$1.892020-01	n/a	5-month gap in NADAC reporting	8

Oral liquid: generic acquisition cost per mL by strength (not on the FDA list)
Strength	Now	2021 median	First month	Now vs 2021	History	NDCs
10000 unit/mL	$2.20	n/a	$2.972013-11	n/a	5-month gap in NADAC reporting	4

Read the price with care. NADAC is a national survey average of retail pharmacy invoices. It is not a quote, not what any patient paid, and it excludes discounts and rebates. A flat or falling benchmark during a shortage means pharmacies' average invoice cost did not rise, not that every patient could find the drug at that price.

FDA caution. The FDA drug shortage list is updated as manufacturers report and should not be relied on for medical care. Ask a pharmacist or prescriber about supply.

Questions

Is Heparin still in shortage?

On the FDA list as of 2026-10-27, the injectable is listed under 8 presentations: 1 unavailable, 3 with limited availability and 4 available. It has been continuously listed since October 2023. FDA says not to rely on the list for medical care; ask a pharmacist.

Did the shortage raise the pharmacy price?

Not in the benchmark. The NADAC survey average for a generic 5000 unit/mL injectable is $1.22 per mL in October 2026, 40% below its 2021 median and 47% below November 2013. NADAC is a national average of retail pharmacy invoices, so it measures what pharmacies pay on average, not what any one patient was charged.

Did Medicaid fills fall during the shortage?

No. CMS State Drug Utilization Data shows 15,745 Medicaid-paid injectable prescriptions in Q4 2025, 14% more than in Q4 2021 (13,797). Those counts are a floor because CMS suppresses small cells, they cover Medicaid only and move with Medicaid enrollment, and they count prescriptions that were filled, not demand that went unmet. A change in fills is not by itself evidence of a shortage.

Cite this page

Figures are calculated from U.S. federal sources (see Data terms below) and rebuilt from dated snapshots. Cite it as:

OmniRx, "Heparin: FDA shortage, NADAC acquisition cost and Medicaid utilization", data as of October 2026. https://omnirx.org/drugs/heparin

Embed this chart

Free with attribution: paste this where you want the chart. It sizes itself to its content. A small "Powered by OmniRx" link stays in the widget; white-label licences remove it and add your own branding.

<iframe id="lx-drug-heparin" src="https://omnirx.org/embed/drug-heparin" width="100%" height="640" style="border:1px solid #e2e8f0;border-radius:10px" title="Heparin shortage and price timeline by omnirx.org" loading="lazy"></iframe>
<script>addEventListener('message',function(e){if(e.origin!=='https://omnirx.org')return;var d=e.data||{};if(d.type==='lx-height'&&d.slug==='drug-heparin'){var f=document.getElementById('lx-'+d.slug);if(f)f.height=d.height;}});</script>

Sources

FDA Drug Shortages list and the openFDA drug shortages API, snapshot 2026-10-27.
Internet Archive captures of the FDA list page, 2014 to 2026, for monthly history (18 months have no usable capture).
CMS NADAC weekly acquisition cost datasets, 2013 to 2026 (one dataset per year on data.medicaid.gov). Brand and generic follow CMS's own classification for rate setting.
CMS State Drug Utilization Data, 2013 to 2026.
openFDA NDC directory for identifiers.

Data terms. Every source above is published by a U.S. federal agency (CMS or FDA). CMS's data site labels its datasets inconsistently: of the 14 NADAC years, 5 carry the "public domain" label and 9 the "U.S. government works" label; of the 14 State Drug Utilization Data years, 6 carry the "public domain" label and 8 the "U.S. government works" label. We record each dataset's label verbatim and cite the source for every figure. Figures on this page are OmniRx calculations from those datasets, not statements by CMS or FDA, and no agency endorses this page.