ADHD Drug Shortage
If you’ve been having trouble filling a prescription for ADHD medication, you’re not alone. The New York Times recently reported that hundreds of patients have flooded the Food and Drug Administration with complaints about pharmacies that do not have enough pills to fill their prescriptions.
The problem stems from a conflict between pharmaceutical companies that are trying to maximize profits and the Drug Enforcement Administration that is working to minimize the recreational abuse of ADHD drugs, which have become popular among college students seeking to get high.
According to New York Times science reporter Gardner Harris, the situation is a classic case of finger-pointing, where both sides claim the other is at fault:
Officials at the Food and Drug Administration say the shortages are a result of overly strict quotas set by the Drug Enforcement Administration, which, for its part, questions whether there really are shortages or whether manufacturers are simply choosing to make more of the expensive pills than the generics, creating supply and demand imbalances.
The situation has made for a rare open disagreement between two federal agencies.
“We have reached out to the D.E.A. and told them that there are shortage issues,” said Valerie Jensen, associate director of the F.D.A.’s drug shortage program. “But the quota issues are outside of our area of responsibility.”
Still, Special Agent Gary Boggs of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Office of Diversion Control, said in an interview, “We believe there is plenty of supply.”
Some high-priced pills are indeed readily available, and D.E.A. officials said that so long as that is the case, they believe that A.D.H.D. drug supplies are adequate. Agent Boggs attributed any supply disruptions to decisions made by manufacturers.
Regardless of who’s to blame for the shortages, millions of children and adults who rely on the medications to manage ADHD are suffering the consequences. There are reports of people going to dozens of pharmacies and still coming away with less than their full prescription; others have been forced to move from their generic brand to the name-brand and paying a premium co-pay in the process.
At this point, the shortages show no signs of abating. When and how the situation will end is anyone’s guess.
January 23rd, 2012 at 9:07 pm
My son has ADHD and takes 30 mg Adderell XR daily. It wears off later in the afternoon, which makes the evening extremely difficult. His psychiatrist ordered 5 mg Adderell to get him through the evening. We live in a fairly large town and my husband found one pharmacy that had the medication available in 10 mg dosage after calling about 25. Of course that pharmacy didn’t accept our insurance, so I ended up paying $77 for 15 pills. Hopefully something will be done regarding this shortage.