Alex just came back from visiting her friend Lucy's son Ryan at the hospital. Ryan is suffering from Leukemia. The doctor treating him had to postpone the last round of chemotherapy for a month because of a months-long nationwide shortage of cytarabine, a drug considered key to curing a type of leukemia. Lucy is worried and mentions to Alex, "He's going so long without chemo, is there a chance this cancer's going to come back?" Alex thinks that in this day and age, we really shouldn't be having this kind of problem and putting our children's lives at risk. She is extremely frustrated and very depressed thinking about Lucy and her son. She decides to get to the bottom of the problem, and looks into researching the reasons behind shortages, their impacts, and what measures can we take curb the problem.

Based on provided scenario Your task is to help Alex in her research. You can research the drug-shortage problem from any of the following perspectives

• Reasons behind shortages
• Impact of shortages
• What measures can be taken to solve the shortage problem

As a reply to the discussion, think about innovations in the medical industry in recent years. Can you think of any innovation that could be helpful or relevant to your peers' research?