HALIFAX – Canada’s pharmacy shortages are now extending beyond the children’s pain and fever medicine aisle to other over-the-counter and prescription drugs as supply problems worsen across the country.
Hundreds of drugs are either running out of stock or out of stock altogether, with some store shelves depleted of allergy medicine for children, cough and cold syrup for adults, eye drops and even some oral antibiotics, industry experts say.
The situation leaves pharmacists scrambling to find alternatives, while many Canadians end up at health clinics or waiting hours in emergency rooms for ailments they would normally treat at home.
“It just keeps getting worse,” Pam Kennedy, a pharmacist and owner of Bridgewater Guardian Pharmacy on Nova Scotia’s South Shore, said in an interview Tuesday.
“Pharmacy teams are working hard to try to find other options for patients, but this is becoming increasingly difficult.”
Nearly a third of prescription drugs are now on order, he said.
Some drug brands have indicated that the shortage is expected to extend into early 2023, Kennedy added.
“I don’t think there’s been a Buckley’s liquid available for months,” he said of a popular brand of cough syrup. “The lack of cough and cold was problematic.”
Drug shortages in Canada began as early as last spring. However, the supply crunch has worsened in recent months due to increased demand amid the spread of influenza, RSV and COVID-19. Prolonged pandemic supply chain disruptions have also contributed to the problem.
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Health Canada officials were criticized during a House of Commons health committee Tuesday for not handling the situation more quickly or effectively.
“The last time I saw these products on the shelves in my community was May,” Fort McMurray-Cold Lake MP Laila Goodridge told the committee, referring to the pediatric painkillers.
“That’s scary for a community that’s five hours from a children’s hospital.”
As many as 800 drugs are currently in short supply in Canada, Linsey Hollett, director of health product compliance for Health Canada, told the committee.
Among those, 23 are considered critical — meaning the shortage poses a significant risk to patients and the health care system, he said.
To bolster supplies of children’s acetaminophen and ibuprofen products, Health Canada has arranged to import some from the United States and Australia.
Meanwhile, pharmacies like Bridgewater Guardian Pharmacy have had to set limits on the number of children’s Tylenol, Advil or Motrin containers customers can buy, Kennedy said.
“I’ve seen grandmothers come in and if they happen to find a bottle, they send it to their children in Alberta to help their grandchildren,” he said.
Canadians near the border also travel to the United States to buy medicine, many of which are fully stocked.
“In New Brunswick people are crossing the border into the US and bringing them back to Canada,” Kennedy said.
Meanwhile, supply shortages are also having a negative effect on the entire supply chain, as alternatives used to substitute essential medicines have now been exhausted.
For example, powders used to make drugs like acetaminophen or ibuprofen are now in short supply, he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on November 15, 2022.
