Drug Shortages

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Alpha8472
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Drug Shortages

Post by Alpha8472 »

Children's medications such as liquid Tylenol and Motrin are in short supply. Sick kids cannot even get the medication from pharmacies as prescriptions. Sometimes a few bottles might be found early in the mornings, but most stores are sold out.

In addition, Ozempic and Mounjaro are having shortages due to people using it for weight loss instead of the intended purpose of controlling diabetes.

Also, many antibiotics are running out. There is a shortage of children's liquid antibiotics due to all of the sick kids. Then their parents come into the pharmacy with their sick kids. The kids are sick and coughing. Their parents don't even make them wear masks or cover their mouths.

Also many pharmacies have run out of Paxlovid for treating COVID. We had to turn away many customers with COVID. Doctors were prescribing it like candy and now when the seriously sick elderly people need it, there is none available.

Also prescription Tamiflu for treating the flu is in short supply. Many people are not able to get it. People will have to try taking Tylenol or Motrin.
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Re: Drug Shortages

Post by jamcool »

This is what happens when you import almost all of your medications. It used to be that a lot of our medications were made in Puerto Rico, until the US government changed the tax rates.
Alpha8472
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Re: Drug Shortages

Post by Alpha8472 »

I remember when thyroid medication used to come from Puerto Rico. A few weeks ago it was in very short supply, but supplies are improving. Many customers still prefer the old brand made in Puerto Rico. It was high quality.
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Re: Drug Shortages

Post by storewanderer »

Since country of origin labeling is not required on medicines, it is not really up front about where the medicines are coming from.

So I wonder why the countries we buy medicines from are not sending enough. Typically when demand increases for a product, producers respond by increasing production... but it seems the era of the past few years is no longer following "typically."

So what goes on now? Who knows. Either they have reduced production, or they have increased demand in their country and are using it there, or the producing countries are buying up the medicine and keeping it in a reserve or something (like the US does with the strategic oil reserve).

Many people likely have expired over the counter medicine sitting around. Hopefully if people take that due to being unable to get fresh product, it will not have any adverse effects.
Alpha8472
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Re: Drug Shortages

Post by Alpha8472 »

There are many reasons for drug shortages. Sourcing each drug has its own problems. There could be supply chain issues, too much demand for a drug, not enough production, etc.

I work in a pharmacy and most of the drugs do have country of origin on the manufacturer bottles. It tells you where the medication was made. However, it does not tell you where all of the ingredients come from. A certain pill may be made in Sweden, but you don't know where the ingredients come from. There is a shortage of Tylenol. The company that makes it says that there is no shortage. There is just an increase in demand or a supply chain issue. The demand increases and the company is not willing to hire more people to increase production. They are not willing to expand facilities to produce more since the cold and flu season will soon come to an end and the companies will not reap any profit from it.

Surprisingly many drugs are made in Israel, India, or various European countries. I have not seen any prescription drugs made in China. However, many ingredients probably do come from China, but the big corporations would never label them as such. I have seen over the counter vitamins that list China as a country of origin. The consumer can choose whether or not to buy those.

Epipens have had their expiration dates extended due to shortages. The medication is actually still effective long after the printed expiration date. Some medications are indeed good for a long time after their expiration dates if kept in cool dry places. However, I have taken expired ibuprofen before and it was significantly less effective than non-expired ibuprofen.
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Re: Drug Shortages

Post by mjhale »

I have seen the OTC drug shortages around me. However it seems to be much more store dependent than across the board. Walmart and Target seem to be wiped out completely or extremely thin on in stocks. However, the grocery stores and drug stores seem to have better but certainly not close to normal in stock conditions. I'm sure this is because Walmart and Target pricing is so much better than the other stores.

This is another case where the US screwed itself in pursuit of the absolute lowest price. We let production leave the country because it is cheaper elsewhere and nets a lower retail price. Well now we are suffering the effects of that choice. Why should another country's producers cooperate when they have their own motivations whether health or profit or both? We have been conditioned to look at price without understanding the consequences. I wonder how many people now who are looking for OTC medications and can't find them would be willing to pay a bit more to on-shore production, even to a territory like Puerto Rico as someone else noted, to improve supply reliability over the long run. Of course, Americans have short memories and when this cold and flu season passes and no one needs these OTC drugs it will be back to the same lament about the rising prices on everything the average consumer has to purchase.
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Re: Drug Shortages

Post by BillyGr »

Alpha8472 wrote: January 1st, 2023, 10:30 pm Children's medications such as liquid Tylenol and Motrin are in short supply. Sick kids cannot even get the medication from pharmacies as prescriptions. Sometimes a few bottles might be found early in the mornings, but most stores are sold out.
Has there been any issue with the adult versions? Can't say I've noticed it, but then again probably not looking at that section very often.
Given that the kids versions are only smaller dosages of the adult ones, you wonder how many parents don't even think about that when they have issues finding the kids ones, just using a tablet cut in half or whatever makes the correct dose.
Of course, many of the adult ones are tablets, but there are liquid versions of some things, plus while not the greatest in taste, one can actually take a tablet and chew or crush it, or even mix it in something (like applesauce) if that was needed to get a child to take it.
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Re: Drug Shortages

Post by Alpha8472 »

They used to make adult liquid versions, but those are also hard to find now.

There are combination cold and flu liquids with acetaminophen in them. Those are easier to find than pure acetaminophen. However, many of those other ingredients are not needed by most people. The combination liquids cannot be given to children as the doses of the other ingredients are too high.
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