Related: COVID continues to put a damper on health, pharma industries

"With a global pandemic and continuing uncertainty regarding the stability and quality of the medication supply chain, health-system pharmacists must be prepared for significant disruptions to 'normal' health-care delivery, including disruption of medication procurement," the report said.

The authors recommend further allocation guidelines, better information sharing and more contingencies for pandemic-related issues such as demand surges or distribution needs. They also advocate for drug acquisition contracts that include periodic reports on quality measures, as well as for legislative action that facilitates both lower spending and better pharmaceutical product quality.

Among the other predictions:

• Supply chain experts have been calling for more mature manufacturing in the industry, but companies have little incentive to invest in better machines or processes. Multiple reports have suggested that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or another entity create a manufacturing quality rating system to help create this incentive.
• Although the pandemic continues to change the health-care field, the panelists are optimistic about future pandemic responses. For instance, hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and cisatracurium were just three of the drugs that saw unprecedented demand surges this past year, but 90% of panelists predicted that at least 75% of health systems would develop allocation guidelines for future shortages using resources such as ethics committees or crisis standards of care.
• Health-care systems lost money while dealing with high COVID patient volumes, but 81% of panelists believe that federal resources will increase during similar incidents in the future. They point to wide disparities in assistance. "Substantial federal funds were provided to wealthy health systems, with 20 large chains receiving $5 billion in federal grants despite holding more than $100 billion in cash," they wrote. "Smaller hospitals, by contrast, received insufficient federal assistance."
• Domestic drug manufacturing also received greater visibility during the pandemic. Nevertheless, 68% of panelists believe the United States is likely to import prescription drugs to combat high drug prices. "While importation of single-source brand-name drugs may not be feasible," the report said, "the FDA may develop pathways for responding to generic drug shortages (or price hikes) by facilitating the regulatory approval of overseas manufacturers of these products."

Read more: 

• Hospital drug shortages send prices soaring
• Health care after the pandemic: Challenges to providers, supply chains
• Health care leaders expect more disruptions, survey says