ADHD drug Adderall is in short supply

MONDAY, August 29, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Due to the labor shortage at Teva Pharmaceuticals, Adderall, a widely used attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) drug, is hard to find in some drugstores.

But the US Food and Drug Administration found that there is no shortage of ADHD medications overall.

Only Teva is reporting supply issues, FDA spokeswoman Cherie Duvall-Jones said NBC News.

“Teva Pharmaceuticals, the maker of Adderall tablets, reports expected delays over the next 2-3 months,” she said.

Teva attributes the delay to a labor shortage on its packaging line, which it says has been addressed. The company added that while some pharmacies may have back orders, this should only be temporary.

“We expect a full recovery of all inventory and orders in the coming weeks. We do not anticipate any disruption at the pharmacy level at this time,” spokeswoman Kelley Dougherty said in a statement. NBC News reported.

Large pharmacy chains haven’t seen a widespread problem: CVS said its locations have “no supply issues with Adderall and are able to fill prescriptions as received in most cases,” while Walgreens said its “current supply is meeting the needs of our patients at this time.” Fulfills ,” NBC News reported.

But small pharmacies suffer from shortages: A survey by the National Community Pharmacists Association conducted July 25-August 5 found that of about 360 independent drugstores, 64% had trouble getting Adderall.

Byron Olson, owner of Roger’s Family Pharmacy in Yankton, SD NBC News that some forms of the drug are harder to obtain than others.

“It often happens that they don’t go all the way out,” he said, explaining that patients taking 20 milligrams (mg) twice a day, for example, may need to use alternative dosages. In some cases, patients may need to switch to a different drug, he noted.

“It can be frustrating for patients because they don’t know about the bottlenecks,” Olson said.

At the Killingworth Family Pharmacy in Killingworth, Connecticut, owner Keith Lyke shared NBC News that he got patients from other pharmacies who couldn’t fill their Adderall prescriptions. But generic forms from other manufacturers were easy enough to come by, he said.

“We tell them it’s a different company, so it might look different,” he explained.

dr David Goodman, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, advised patients taking Adderall to anticipate difficulties with their prescription refills and work with their doctors and pharmacies to obtain alternatives.

“It’s unpredictable. We can sail well and then we hit a bottleneck,” he said NBC News.

In the worst case – a patient who does not receive any medication – the deficiency usually does not last long.

“Usually it’s a matter of a few days or within a week,” he said.

More information

Visit the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to learn more about ADHD.