I was told yesterday.
This is now not merely disturbing but alarming.
I try to be sensible about these things. I do not wait until the last possible moment to renew a prescription. I go into the pharmacy several days in advance.
It is just as well I did. I went in on Monday. I was told there is a shortage - again. This has happened before. The supplies simply aren't coming in.
The medication is made in America. The company in question appears to have the monopoly. They don't like supplying it to Downunder because they can make more money supplying it elsewhere - or so I am told.
I am inclined to believe this because I distrust drug companies. They are, first and foremost, about making money. The health of the humans and other animals they are supposed to care for definitely comes second.
"We are trying to get some in. Try again tomorrow," I was told.
"It will have to be Wednesday," I said.
"We will have some by then."
And they didn't in the morning but I was told, "It might be in this afternoon."
I couldn't find out then. We had a visitor and then some news that meant I had to write urgent emails of a legal nature.
I'll find out this morning. I have one little white tablet left -for tomorrow. If they cannot fill the prescription then they say they will call the surgery and ask them to supply a prescription for something else as a matter of urgency.
I don't like this. I know I have the capacity to go and ask - but I should not need to do it. I know too that a lot of people don't have that same capacity. They leave it until they have actually run out before they rush into the pharmacy expecting something to be available. What are the chances they will then get priority over someone like me?
"You are very wise not to leave it until the last minute," I was told.
But it still has to be available.
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3 comments:
There is so much wrong in the drug industry that the thing one should say is "Don't get me started". For a start it should not be an "industry" since it is too important a field for commercial considerations to be playing a part.
Perhaps you can ring the pharmacist to enquire if the medicine has arrived, or s/he can ring you. It seems that that could save several wasted trips.
It must be worrying to need a drug and it to be unavailable. I suppose if your pharmacy has run out, other ones have too.
Fingers crossed!
LMcC
It isn't just the pharmaceutical companies who are at fault, there are also the "pharmacy benefits managers" who serve as intermediaries between the drug companies and the rest of the world.
From the point of view of a hospital - dealing with a benefits manager = one stop shopping rather than contracts with dozens or hundreds of separate companies. From the point of view of the PBM - they can make money off both ends of the deal.
For purchasers outside the US for US sourced meds - costs vary depending on quantity and purchaser. Countries get better prices than individual systems (Example -one of the immune therapies routine for non-Hodgkins lumphoma has a cost of $6000US for a particular treatment in the US government system, 20% more than that in US non-Government systems and a cost of $1200 with its contract with the Norwegian Government (single sources contract).
Short answer - yes -you are getting jerked around because of either 1) manufacturing can't keep up with the supply or
2) someone is getting more money by selling the drug else where. It might be the drug company, but it could also be a middleman with multiple contracts.
None of which makes it right at all
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