Medication shortage woes affecting many NZers
WELLINGTON: Pharmacists and doctors in New Zealand are scrambling to find ways to manage global medication shortages because of Covid19.
It affects hundreds of thousands of patients, who are having to adjust prescriptions or switch to alternative medications.
Pharmaceutical Society vicepresident Rhiannon Braund said it was a huge workload for pharmacists.
‘‘About three times as much, and they’re dealing with patients who are unhappy. Trying to work with GPs and source alternatives is a challenging process.’’
Royal College of GPs medical director Bryan Betty, who is a former deputy medical director of Pharmac, said he wanted the drug buyer to improve its communication amid global medication shortages.
‘‘Pharmac needs to open up its channels of communication so we can start to prepare for it and think about it and solutions, and it needs clear explanations as to why/why not some medicines are available and whether there will be alternatives if we know they are in place,’’ Dr Betty said.
Covid distributions to medicinal supply chains was concerning for health professionals and hundreds of thousands of patients were having to adjust prescriptions or switch to alternative medications.
Pharmac needed to better inform general practices, he said.
In a statement, Pharmac director of operations Lisa Williams said: ‘‘We recognise and acknowledge this situation will be disruptive for some people. We are working closely with our suppliers to try to minimise the length of outofstocks and will be updating our website with more information as it becomes available.’’
In most cases, Covid19 had been the cause of this impact on medicine and medical device supply chains, she said. The pandemic would cause continued global impacts on medicine manufacturing and supply chains for the remainder of 2020 and beyond.
Some pharmacies might still have stock of the temporary alternative brands Necon or Brevinor to replace Norimin to fill prescriptions, but this would be limited and unevenly distributed across the country. Stock of Necon or Brevinor was expected to be exhausted by midOctober, when Norimin was expected back in New Zealand.
There might be more Necon that could be made available to cover the prolonged stock shortage of Norimin and Pharmac would provide more information about that as soon as possible, she said.
Pfizer has been unable to source an alternative brand that is chemically equivalent to Brevinor 1/28, and Pharmac issued a media release about this last month.
‘‘Pharmac are in touch with Pfizer about the ongoing security of supply of these oral contraceptives, and you may wish to talk with them about this. They can be contacted on 0800 736363.’’
To ensure patients can continue treatment with hormone replacement therapy Pharmac said it would be funding some alternative brands. — RNZ