With flu season in full swing, there is growing frustration among British Columbians about the lack of cold and flu medicine.
Metro Vancouver pharmacies are reporting an unprecedented shortage of over-the-counter medications, coming after another shortage of cold and flu products for children last fall.
“We’re missing a lot of the products we usually have,” said Vancouver pharmacist Tina Chafier, pointing to the empty shelves behind her.
Shafiee said she has seen shortages and back orders for all kinds of drugs over the past year, and it has only gotten worse in recent weeks.
“There are some products that are available, but the problem is that many of them are combination products. And we don’t want people to take extra medication if they don’t need it,” Chafie said.
She also said patients feel frustrated and anxious.
“They will ask, ‘When is it going to be available?’ or ‘Why is this happening?’ and we don’t have great answers for that because we don’t know when it’s going to be available. It could be tomorrow, it could be in a month. It’s hard to say,” Chafie said.
The situation seems to be worse in some big chain pharmacies.
“We’ve never seen a shortage like this before,” said Angelique Berg, president and CEO of the Canadian Association of Pharmacy Distribution Management (CAPDM).
She said this shortage is due to a sustained surge in demand and producers are struggling to keep up.
She also said that early demand for children’s drugs months ago caused manufacturers to focus on those products, and companies did not have time to expand and produce enough cough and cold drugs for adults.
“It’s been really hard to catch up, but we’re catching up,” Berg said.
“Distribution delivers the products as soon as they are received. So once they get into the distributors, they get out right away,” she added.
In a statement to CTV News, British Columbia’s Ministry of Health said it is aware of the current shortage of cough and flu medicine for adults.
“We are monitoring this situation closely and are working with Health Canada, other provinces, territories and stakeholders to assess the current supply situation,” the statement said.
“We are also contacting product manufacturers to find ways to improve supply.”
In the meantime, people are encouraged to contact different pharmacies to find the specific drug they are looking for and buy only what they need.
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