Pharmac criticised over drug shortage

WELLINGTON: A shortage of New Zealand’s most common antidepressant and a switch in the drug’s supplier has sparked fears lives will be put at risk.

Since Monday, all pharmacists have been told by New Zealand’s drug buying agency, Pharmac, to give patients only one month’s supply of antidepressant fluoxetine, instead of the usual three months.

Pharmacists are also being told to add a note to the prescription, which hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders use, saying it is ‘‘out of stock’’.

The shortage comes as Pharmac is changing its funded brand of fluoxetine from ArrowFluoxetine to Fluox, which has now been delayed due to manufacturing problems.

While Pharmac says more stock of ArrowFluoxetine will be available in two weeks, Auckland pharmacist Lyn Goddard said there was no guarantee how much would be available.

She feared some patients with serious depression could be left without their medication, possibly with deadly consequences.

Ms Goddard has spoken out in ‘‘disgust’’, saying the shortage was because Pharmac had not managed to get the new variant registered in time.

‘‘They [Pharmac] are playing with people’s lives and I’m sick of it,’’ she said.

‘‘It’s all about money and they [Pharmac] have no feeling for the patients who are suffering, and we [pharmacists] are the ones who take the brunt of it.’’

She was also worried about the impact the brand switch could have on patients, in the light of the epilepsy deaths shortly after Pharmac changed its generic brand in October last year.

The deaths were referred to the coroner and Pharmac backed down on the brand switch.

National Party health spokesman Michael Woodhouse came down hard on Health Minister David Clark, saying he should seek assurance that noone would miss out on their antidepressants.

‘‘I hope David Clark has learnt from his mistakes with the attempted brand change of Lamotrigine that led to three deaths.

‘‘The minister needs to make sure these changes don’t come at the expense of Kiwis’ health.’’

A spokesman for Dr Clark said the minister was not available for comment but was aware of the shortage.

Fluoxetine is an antidepressant used to treat depression, obsessivecompulsive disorder, bulimia nervosa, panic disorder and premenstrual dysphoric disorder.

Figures show more than 300,000 New Zealanders were prescribed antidepressants, at least 95,000 people taking fluoxetine, last year.

New Zealand Association of Counsellors president Christine Macfarlane said it was the first medication given to adults with depression.

‘‘Though Pharmac will say the brand change won’t have any effect on patients, we know that it does, especially when patients aren’t made aware of the switch, which has happened in the past.’’

Pharmac operations director Lisa Williams said cost was behind the brand change.

‘‘Pharmac has a fixed budget which means we need to make careful and considered funding choices.’’

Ms Williams said Fluox had the same active ingredient (fluoxetine) as ArrowFluoxetine and it had been assessed and approved by Medsafe.

‘‘Patients shouldn’t notice any difference in how it affects them,’’ she said. — The New Zealand Herald

❛ They [Pharmac] are playing with people’s lives and I’m sick of it