The Pharmacy Chick

Comment by ltlmiskis

July 1, 2009 @ 10:30 pm

anda pharmaceuticals had it in stock–i dont know if they still do or not–they’ve had it when we cant get it from mckesson—happy hunting

Comment by Dr. Grumpy

July 2, 2009 @ 5:19 am

Join the club. This is insane. It’s been on every medical and pharmacy blog this week.

What pisses me off is that they pass the “Patient Bill of Rights” saying that patients have a right to pain treatment. Then the take away the things we use to accomplish these goals.

Comment by chris

July 2, 2009 @ 7:36 am

I hate all the out of stocks lately, we cant get hold of so much without jumping through hoops, and even then its not always a garantee. We then get it in the neck from the patients, the doctors and our management about why people arent getting important medication.

It’s expecially difficult as our wholesaler tells us there is manufacturer problems when the manufacturer tells us that they were sent x hundred packs that week. We cant get it but our main competitor seems to be able to, maybe its because B**ts the Chemist (letters removed for annonimity) is owned by the same people that own their supplier.

Comment by amyrph96

July 2, 2009 @ 8:35 am

As a Hospice pharmacist, I cannot agree with you more. My hands are even further tied as I’m not allowed to order the Morphine 20mg/5ml liquid due to upper management’s concern about concentration confusion. My poor nurses are suffering through my interrogations every time they try and order it. If the patient can still swallow, sorry gotta call the MD for Oxy IR 5mg or MS IR 15mg. I am so frustrated by this stupidity. I have to admit I’ve had the same thought on numerous occasions about anyone who is behind this stupid plan suddenly developing metastatic throat cancer, being unable to swallow, in excruciating pain and me just shrugging my shoulders. Sigh, bureaucracy is making me vindictive.

Comment by Pharmacy Princess

July 3, 2009 @ 7:16 pm

At my pharmacy it’s pretty much ALL the Oxycodone, though 30 mg is the one we haven’t had in at least 2 months. We were keeping a tally of all the people who called asking for it, but eventually we ran out of room on our dry-erase board so we had to stop.

Comment by MrMedSaver

July 3, 2009 @ 7:52 pm

This Roxanol shortage isn’t the FDA’s fault. Initially, they were going to force morphine 20mg/ml off the market, but they backtracked thanks to the huge uproar that came along with the announcement.

It’s actually the disappearance of Ethex’s product – which was the dominant brand of generic Roxanol on the market – that’s left a gaping hole in availability. All manufacturers of controlled substances have predetermined raw material quotas that are imposed by the DEA. Thus, it’s not very easy for other manufacturers to simply ramp up production.

At my pharmacy, we’ve been able to order the Glenmark brand in recently. But when we can’t get it in, we’ve just been compounding it. Morphine sulfate is freely soluble in water at 20mg/ml, so it’s a pretty easy process.Good information, I may need to make it myself if I get into a spot!

Comment by Pharmer Jane

July 5, 2009 @ 12:12 pm

I provide care for a large hospice in the area. I’ve resorted to morphine suppositories, crushing the morphine 15mg IR, hydromorphone tablets, etc. I haven’t had too much difficulty lately obtaining the morphine 20mg/ml solution, but I also provide predrawn oral syringes, so if a patient only ends up using 5ml of morphine before passing away, the other 25ml of the bottle doesn’t end up discarded or languishing in someone’s medicine cabinet. Hospice pays me $2/syringe to cover the time costs of predrawing; they also do not have to have a nurse present to draw every single dose from a multiple dose bottle–in the state where I work, assisted living patients must have individual liquid doses drawn by an LPN or RN, not just any med pass tech.

I was shocked when the FDA announced a few months ago that concentrated morphine would be withdrawn from the market. Even though they reversed their decision after a few days, I think the damage is still being done.