Ontario: As various respiratory variety diseases of children spread across the country, pharmacies are looking for alternatives to children’s medicines.
There has been a shortage of supply of Liquid Tylenol and other medications since summer. The shortage is being attributed to an increase in demand for acetaminophen and ibuprofen products for newborns and older children.
Many pharmacists are having to prepare children’s painkillers in the form of liquid by mixing raw products. For the past four months, The Beaches Pharmacy in Toronto has not received any supply of children’s Tylenol or Advil.
“It’s very painful when a parent comes to us every 15 minutes looking for children’s medicines and calls us, but they have to answer because we don’t have the medicine,” said Pharmacist Kyro Maseh.
Justin Bates, CEO of the Ontario Pharmacists Association, said that manufacturers produce a drug according to the annual consumption of a drug, but this year the demand for common-use drugs is so high that it is difficult to meet the supply.
Bates said That Canada’s supply chain is working day and night to meet this shortage and production has also been increased by 35 percent, but there is still more criteria to be adopted to meet this shortage. He also said that in such a situation, Health Canada should be allowed to import children’s Tylenol or Advil from the US.