# FDA Drug Shortage Burden Gauge by Therapeutic Category

> FDA Drug Shortage Burden Gauge by Therapeutic Category is a paid API for AI agents from aeml-x402.zeabur.app, paid per call via x402, $0.25/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-14).

Returns a real-time causal-chain snapshot of US drug shortage burden for a given therapeutic category, combining FDA/openFDA leading indicators (new shortage incidence), current burden (active shortages, unavailability counts), and hardening signals (duration, discontinuation, procurement/tariff cascades).

## Facts

- Endpoint: GET https://aeml-x402.zeabur.app/gauge/drug-shortage-region
- Price: $0.25/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-14
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/fda-drug-shortage-burden-gauge-by-therapeutic-category-041db0d7
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_fIxbIRalIWxC0I-vtqb1B

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability fda-drug-shortage-burden-gauge-by-therapeutic-category-041db0d7
```

Example prompt: Pull the current FDA drug shortage burden snapshot for the oncology therapeutic category — I need the new shortage incidence rate, how many drugs are currently unavailable, and any hardening signals like discontinuations or procurement cascades.

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when you need a structured, multi-signal causal-chain view of US drug shortage burden for a specific therapeutic category sourced directly from FDA/openFDA — especially for hospital and GPO pharmacy procurement decisions, PBM supply intelligence, pharma competitive analysis, or parametric supply-disruption monitoring agents. Prefer this over general FDA search tools when you need the upstream (new incidence), current burden, and downstream hardening signals (discontinuations, procurement cascades) bundled in a single verifiable response with provenance and freshness metadata.

## Known failure modes

- Missing or invalid entity parameter returns an error — the therapeutic category must be specified
- Data may be stale if FDA/openFDA upstream sources have not updated recently (reflected in freshness field: fresh/recent/stale)
- Some legs may lack data if FDA does not report shortages for a niche therapeutic category
- Payment failure or missing x402 payment header results in 402 Payment Required
- Network or upstream FDA API outages may delay or prevent data retrieval
- If a therapeutic category string is unrecognized, the endpoint may return empty or partial leg data

## How this service works

[3-LEG] Drug shortage chain, one therapeutic class (?entity=oncology): leading new-shortage incidence from openFDA new listings, which leads the burden peak -> current current active shortages in the class -> realized resolution rate (confirmation gate). A sequential chain, not one reading - confidence = how many legs are lit, in order. Sources: openFDA. Descriptive only, never a forecast or advice. No data -> 422 no_charge, not billed.

## Output

A structured JSON object containing: the entity (therapeutic category queried), a nature disclaimer, per-leg signal readings (new shortage rate, current shortage count, unavailability count/ratio, criticality, duration, discontinuation, procurement/tariff cascade signals), a cross-line narrative summarizing the causal chain, provenance metadata (data age, freshness, lineage traceable to FDA/openFDA), an optional grade and scope disclosure, decision points for re-running with different category tags, and a zero-trust verifiable citation with Ed25519 signature.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
 "properties": {
  "input": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type",
    "method",
    "queryParams"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "const": "http"
    },
    "method": {
     "enum": [
      "GET"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    },
    "queryParams": {
     "type": "object",
     "required": [
      "entity"
     ],
     "properties": {
      "entity": {
       "type": "string",
       "examples": [
        "anesthesia",
        "oncology",
        "psychiatry-cns",
        "analgesia-opioid",
        "anti-infective",
        "cardiovascular"
       ],
       "description": "required - monitored object id, paired with signal_id; free list at GET /gauge/catalog?signal_id=<signal_id> -> signals[0].entities[]",
       "x-accepted-values": {
        "all": "https://api.truthbear.co/schemas/gauge-drug-shortage-region.input.json",
        "shown": 6,
        "total": 18
       }
      }
     },
     "additionalProperties": false
    }
   }
  },
  "output": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "const": "json"
    },
    "example": {}
   }
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json"
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/fda-drug-shortage-burden-gauge-by-therapeutic-category-041db0d7/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from aeml-x402.zeabur.app](https://www.zero.xyz/host/aeml-x402.zeabur.app/llms.txt)