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SHORT SUPPLY
FINDING AN ALTERNATIVE If patients are having di culty obtaining their medication due to ongoing shortages, medical professionals o er the following advice.
As of March 31, the class of drugs in shortest supply nationally were central nervous system drugs—such as Adderall—and the second highest category shortage was antimicrobials, such as amoxicillin.
Types of drugs in shortest supply nationally as of March 31
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STEPS TO TAKE
Contact other pharmacy locations if pharmacy is a chain Try locally owned/independent pharmacies Ask doctor for alternative medications
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Fluids/elytes (Electrolytes are minerals that aid in hydration and bodily health.)
Antimicrobials (Used to treat or prevent infections; includes antibiotics and antivirals)
Chemo (Chemotherapy is a treatment for cancer.)
CNS drugs (Includes medications for depression, anxiety, ADHD, insomnia and seizures)
Hormones (Can be synthetic or natural endocrine gland extracts; includes medications for diabetes)
SOURCES: UNIVERSITY OF UTAH DRUG INFORMATION SERVICE, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION COMMUNITY IMPACT
SOURCES: UNIVERSITY OF UTAH DRUG INFORMATION SERVICE, AMERICAN SOCIETY OF HOSPITAL PHARMACISTS, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION, NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE COMMUNITY IMPACT
department, said the three most prominent medication shortages are Albuterol, Adderall and Ozempic, which are typically prescribed to treat asthma, attention de cit hyperactivity disorder and diabetes, respectively. “Those big three—Albuterol, Adderall and Ozempic—are probably the most pronounced ones because they’re so commonly used right now,” he said. “The majority of [drugs on shortage] are inpatient and are not used as widely as these three groups of drugs.” Ongoing shortages Ho art said Magnolia Pharmacy lls hundreds of prescriptions and interacts with around 200-300 patients in a typical day. Sta have seen shortages of a number of medi- cations, including ADHD medication and Ozempic. “We’ve seen drug shortages, not only on some brand-name drugs but also on generic [drugs],” Ho art said. “That
has been quite a bit of a challenge lately in trying to deal with that because you don’t want patients to run out of meds, especially your regular patients.” Within the active drug shortages, central nervous system drugs—which treat conditions such as ADHD, anxi- ety and depression—was the highest category shortage, according to the University of Utah Drug Information Service report. Tomball’s Gloyer’s Pharmacy, which lls around 400 prescriptions in an average day, has also been deal- ing with drug shortages. “Like 10% of what we’re going to order on a given day is a challenge,” pharmacist Stuart Berlin said. “We have our primary wholesaler, and then we have four or ve or six other ones that we can potentially order from. So a lot of the time we can source it somewhere else, but it requires a little more work and e ort.” On the hospital side, Ursula Tachie-Menson, director of pharmacy
increasing [is that] it’s really hard to upscale a production operation whenever the demand goes up a lot,” Wollen said. “So for the Albuterol, I’m more hopeful than I am for the Adderall and the Ozempic that it will be resolved quickly.” Dr. Anupam Sidhu, a primary care physician at Houston Methodist Willow- brook Hospital, said she also believes the shortages are due to a combination of demand and manufacturing issues. “The FDA is reportedly monitoring supplies and assisting with manufac- turing where possible,” Sidhu said. “In regard to Ozempic, for instance, the massive numbers of new pre- scriptions being written are cur- rently outnumbering the production capabilities.” For 2022, 19% of drug manufactur- ers blamed supply and demand for U.S. medication shortages, and 18% cited manufacturing issues, according to the University of Utah Drug Infor- mation Service report.
services at Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Medical Center, is in charge of the medication distribution for the hospital. She said the hospi- tal has struggled with medication shortages the last two years, noting shortages in Lidocaine, used for anes- thetics, and even Tylenol. She said, despite these shortages, the hospital has never been unable to give a life-saving drug to a patient. “All we care about is our patients and making sure that we can give them what they need,” Tachie-Men- son said. “From the littlest patients to the oldest patients, … it’s often heart- breaking to see that we have things that they should be able to get easily is just a struggle to get.” Behind the shortages Wollen said the reasons for the shortages—including increases in demand and manufacturing prob- lems—depend on the medication. “The problem with demand
Rashes, bites and stings are just some of the non-life threatening illnesses and injuries we treat quickly and affordably.
SO IT WAS POISON IVY AFTER ALL.
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