Medication Shortage

[Wendy Murray]

I am type2 diabetic for over 8 years and as well as taking Metformin I also take Simvastatin, asprin, valstatin 160mg, and amlodipine which all seems to be par for the course for diabetics of an older age. My problem is that twice recently when my 3 monthly prescriptions have been raised the pharmacy has not been able to supply the Valstartin saying there is a national shortage as the manufacturers cant supply enough. I have been to several chemists who have told me the same thing but when I tell my receptionist at the doctors they know nothing about this. Is anyone else having the same problem obtaining this medication ?

 

[Pumper_Sue]

Hi Wendy,
have a look at the patient leaflet and see if there's a phone number on it for the company that makes the drug and give them a ring. This way you will know the answer or look on the net for the company and email them.

 

[grovesy]

Welcome.
If patients are not feeding the information back to their GP's then there is no reason the GP's would know. If more than one Pharmacy is telling you the same thing then it is likely to be correct. As Sue suggested you could contact the manufacturer/ distributor.
It is not unheard of for there to be supply problems, it does happen. I would be asking to speak to the Doctor for an alternative.

 

[Wendy Murray]

I was told that it is up to me to inform the pharmacy, the doctor is too busy to be chasing up the information, which I think is silly as it is taking up more of his time having to reissue prescriptions. Anyhow I have found out the name of the manufacturer and will ring them tomorrow. Thanks for your advice.

 

[Northerner]

Hi Wendy, welcome 🙂 I would also ask the GP to prescribe an alternative if you are having problems getting them. I'm presuming you mean valsartan? I use a medication from the same 'family' called candesartan and have never experienced any problems obtaining it 🙂 Hope you can get it sorted soon!

 

[grovesy]

I was told that it is up to me to inform the pharmacy, the doctor is too busy to be chasing up the information, which I think is silly as it is taking up more of his time having to reissue prescriptions. Anyhow I have found out the name of the manufacturer and will ring them tomorrow. Thanks for your advice.

Good luck, let us know how you get on.

 

[Wendy Murray]

Will do, I will ring them in the morning.

 

[Wendy Murray]

I have spoken to the company Teva UK just now and they say there is a problem with their manufacturing side producing these capsules but they hope to have more in stock by 19th December . These should then start filtering through to pharmacy wholesalers before Christmas.

 

[Pumper_Sue]

I have spoken to the company Teva UK just now and they say there is a problem with their manufacturing side producing these capsules but they hope to have more in stock by 19th December . These should then start filtering through to pharmacy wholesalers before Christmas.

Really pleased you have an answer at least you know where you stand now.

 

[pav]

Good news you have the answer and the chemists were right. I had a similar problem with metformin a week ago when picking up my prescription. On my repeat the doc has specified a particular make of metformin, the chemist has plenty of stock of other makes just that one was in short supply. Will have to get the doc just to put metformin SR on the repeat and not the specific make.

 

[trophywench]

Good news you have the answer and the chemists were right. I had a similar problem with metformin a week ago when picking up my prescription. On my repeat the doc has specified a particular make of metformin, the chemist has plenty of stock of other makes just that one was in short supply. Will have to get the doc just to put metformin SR on the repeat and not the specific make.

Pav - watch out though cos quite a number of folk report that 'other makes' of Met SR don't suit em as well as the original they were on - getting the gastric side effects back again, which was the very reason they were on the ruddy SR to begin with.

 

[grovesy]

I have spoken to the company Teva UK just now and they say there is a problem with their manufacturing side producing these capsules but they hope to have more in stock by 19th December . These should then start filtering through to pharmacy wholesalers before Christmas.

Glad you got an answer, someone was enquiring a few weeks ago about another drug that was out of stock everywhere, and I am also sure that Teva UK was the company as well. Maybe they had a problem with the production line. I know when I had problems once the factory involved had a fire.
There are many brands of Metformin SR, the only difference I have noticed is that some are the size of horse pills and some are much smaller. My repeats for the last 18 months have been for Diagamet XL.

 

[grovesy]

Just done my medicine pots for the next few days and happen to notice that Teva UK make a few of my generic medicines, so they must manufacture a number of differnt drugs.

 

[trophywench]

Just done my medicine pots for the next few days and happen to notice that Teva UK make a few of my generic medicines, so they must manufacture a number of differnt drugs.

They obviously do - I take 5 different tablets and just looked at the boxes - 2 of them were Teva. One is Doxasozin. They also made my current box of Clopidrogel and it's my belief one just gets whichever happens to be cheapest at that time, since the Clop are orrible - quite big, really hard to get out of the foil packaging without breaking, not film coated and those sort of tabs that if they happen to not go down immediately, start melting wherever they happen to stick and taste absolutely vile, if they do. Sort of sludgy orange little bullets, not enormous but not half as easy to ingest as others I've had.

 

[grovesy]

They obviously do - I take 5 different tablets and just looked at the boxes - 2 of them were Teva. One is Doxasozin. They also made my current box of Clopidrogel and it's my belief one just gets whichever happens to be cheapest at that time, since the Clop are orrible - quite big, really hard to get out of the foil packaging without breaking, not film coated and those sort of tabs that if they happen to not go down immediately, start melting wherever they happen to stick and taste absolutely vile, if they do. Sort of sludgy orange little bullets, not enormous but not half as easy to ingest as others I've had.

My Naproxen, and Irbestartan are the ones currently in my stash. I am sure you are right about been given the cheapest generic at the time.

 

[mikeyB]

The trouble with these generics is the companies who supply them are just repackaging stuff made in India by the ton. There's nothing wrong with these products (bar Metformin SR mentioned above), because they are tested by law to conform with regulations in this country. It's these supplies that vary with a change of season, or Australia touring for a test series. Or at least for reasons outside the British company's control. Most of my tablets change from one month to the next, but mainly those that are worth replicating because of the enormous number of prescriptions for them. They don't bother with stuff technically almost impossible to produce in India because of religious opposition to handling pig carcasses to make Creon, or any similar high tech drug. The costs preclude the high profit from the sleepwalking NHS.