Nearly half of FDA-approved prescription drug products are no longer marketed
Of the 5,007 FDA-approved prescription drug products in our catalog, 2,404 (48%) are no longer actively marketed.
What this does — and does not — mean
These figures count drug products— specific brand-and-formulation records in the FDA’s Drugs@FDA database — not active ingredients. A high discontinuation rate mostly reflects how the generic market churns: when one manufacturer retires an older version, an equivalent from another maker usually remains on the market. So a discontinued product rarely means the medicine itself is unavailable. It is a measure of product turnover, not of patients losing access to treatment. (OTC medicines and supplements are excluded — the FDA does not track a marketing status for them.)
Drug classes with the highest product churn
Share of each class’s prescription products that are discontinued (classes with at least 25 products). Cephalosporin Antibacterial leads — 75% of its 44 products are retired, typically as newer agents in the class replaced older ones.
The most enduring drug classes
By contrast, these classes keep the largest share of their products on the market — a sign of stable, still-prescribed product lines.
Method & source
Computed live from the marketing-status field of the U.S. FDA’s Drugs@FDA database, across every prescription drug product in our catalog. “Discontinued” is the FDA’s own status. Nothing is estimated. Figures update as our data refreshes. This is information, not medical advice — if a medicine you take has been discontinued, ask your pharmacist about an equivalent.
A note on scope: our 48% counts drug products (brand-and-formulation records). Measured at the level of unique molecules, churn is far lower — a peer-reviewed analysis found that of 1,310 new drugs the FDA approved from 1980–2021, 210 (16%) were discontinued by the end of 2021, including 2.9% withdrawn for safety (A Comparative Assessment of Approvals and Discontinuations). Our figure is higher because generics retire at the product level as equivalents replace them — the same churn the class breakdown above shows.
Download the data (CSV) — free to reuse with attribution to pharmaranks.
Cite this report:“Discontinued Prescription Drugs Report,” pharmaranks, 2026. https://pharmaranks.com/discontinued-drugs
For journalists & researchers: the figures, the class breakdown, and the CSV above are free to cite and reproduce with attribution and a link. Questions about the methodology or a custom cut of the data — get in touch.
Related: FDA Drug Recall Report · browse all rated drugs