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2023 HEALTH CARE EDITION
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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10 20 50 30 40
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30
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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
Medications a ected Van Tran, the pharmacist in charge at Roberds Pharmacy in Conroe, said the medication shortages began around the spike of the COVID-19 pandemic and have continued since. She said the pharmacy’s sta have noticed shortages in everything from blood pressure medication to more rare medications, including a major shortage of Adderall. The FDA added the medication to its shortage list Oct. 10, with multiple pharmaceutical manufacturers citing “demand increase” or “shortage of active ingredient” as the causes, according to the FDA’s website. Ursula Tachie-Menson, director of pharmacy services at Memorial Her- mann The Woodlands Medical Center, is in charge of the medication distribu- tion for the hospital. Tachie-Menson said the hospital has struggled with medication shortages the last two years, noting shortages in Lidocaine, used for anesthetics, and even Tylenol. FOLLOWING THE SUPPLY CHAIN
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 heartbreaking to see that we have things that they should be able to get easily is just a struggle to get.” Origin of shortages For 2022, 19% of drug manufactur- ers blamed supply and demand for U.S. medication shortages, and 18% cited manufacturing issues, accord- ing to the University of Utah Drug Information Service. Meanwhile, 56% of manufacturers did not know the cause or would not provide a cause. Wollen said reasons for the short- ages vary from demand outweighing supply to manufacturing shortages. For Ozempic, he cited more individ- uals seeking the medication for its
weight loss side e ects. He attributed Adderall shortages to rising mental health care access. “People are able to get seen and get treated for mental health issues much more readily, and so that has caused the increase in demand that the supply chain didn’t have enough to keep up with,” Wollen said. Albuterol shortages are due to a manufacturing shortage, Wollen said, as some generic manufacturers no longer produce the drug or are chang- ing the way they manufacture it. Tran also cited manufacturing issues with the medication chal- lenges facing pharmacies. Pharmacies get their drugs from a wholesaler who receives its product from a manufacturer, she said. Manufacturers, who could be located in the U.S. or overseas, will run into shutdowns for recalls or they may be short-sta ed. “Manufacturer [sells] to wholesal- ers, wholesalers sell to [pharmacists],
and if a wholesaler cannot get the medication from any manufacturer, then we will be on backorder, and the patient won’t get [it],” Tran said. Tran said those experiencing delays can reach out to compound- ing pharmacies, such as Roberds Pharmacy, that can source powders and make the medication while the prescription is on backorder. Any- thing commercially available cannot be compounded. Mealey recommended those who need re lls in their medication to re ll their prescriptions a week before they would run out. “The best practice is really just to call around and see who has [the medication] and who doesn’t,” Mealey said. Additional reporting by Lizzy Spangler
For more information, visit communityimpact.com .
Multiple parties—such as suppliers, manufacturers, wholesalers, hospitals and pharmacies—make up the supply chain for medications, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and disruptions can happen at any point along the journey, causing drug shortages.
Supplier : Provides components and ingredients
Manufacturer : Processes ingredients for pharmaceutical products
Wholesaler distributor (primary) : Purchases medications from manufacturers and distributes them to customers
Pharmacy or hospital : Can also include nursing homes, doctor’s o ces, labs and clinics
Patient : 48.6% of people in the U.S. used a prescription
for medications to manufacturers
drug in the last 30 days from 2015-18.
Repackager : Moves medications into di erent containers without altering the product
Wholesaler distributor (secondary) : Independent pharmacies can seek out secondary wholesaler distributors when
SOURCES: FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY, THE KAISER FAMILY FOUNDATION, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION COMMUNITY IMPACT
looking for out-of-stock medications
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CONROE MONTGOMERY EDITION • JUNE 2023
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