Pediatric drug shortages are frustrating caregivers

MILFORD, Mass. — Sue Laridis recently tried to buy cough medicine for her grandson.

“I just couldn’t find it,” she said. “Nobody has anything. It’s like even at the grocery stores. It’s getting ridiculous.”

Across Eastern Massachusetts, many are finding pharmacy shelves devoid of such products as pediatric acetaminophen and ibuprofen -- as well as any number of children’s cough medications. To some extent, demand is driving the shortage -- as cases of influenza, RSV, and Covid surge, said Michael Ganio, senior director of Pharmacy Practice and Quality with the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP).

But Ganio suggested something else is going on, as well: panic.

“It’s very reminiscent of toilet paper during the pandemic,” Ganio said. “It’s unfortunate, but we get wind of maybe there’s not going to be access to something and everybody wants to go buy it.”

In other words, the perception of a shortage creates an actual shortage.

But Ganio expects shortages of childhood products to ease in the coming weeks, as manufacturers ship out more products -- because, he said, there are no manufacturing issues.

“Some of the commercial manufacturers of those medications have talked to us and said, we have product available,” he said. “It’s a matter of getting it out to the shelves.”

However, shortages of prescription medications may not be resolved so quickly.

“Amoxicillin and some similar antibiotics have been problematic in recent weeks,” Ganio said. “When we think about drug shortages we think about some sort of manufacturing disruption, something with the supply chain that could be further upstream with glass or the raw material. But these shortages seem to be completely driven by demand.”

Thus, the direction of outbreaks will help determine when such shortages will ease -- but not just in the United States.

“In the United States, a lot of our medicine, including the antibiotics, the ingredients... they’re made in China,” said Christopher Tang, PhD, a distinguished professor of Business Administration at UCLA. “Even the screw caps they make in China. If you don’t have the screw caps, how can you ship it out?”

China recently lifted its zero-Covid policy which, ideally, should mean a resumption of manufacturing. But the fear is infections could rise rapidly, causing manufacturing to shut down again.

“Right now, I think the manufacturers are actually trying to encourage people to work harder to get more output,” Tang said. “At the end of the day, everything is connected. We are not living in an isolated world. So what happens in other countries such as China will affect us as well... and vice-versa.”

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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