Calgary pharmacy says children’s Tylenol, Advil stocks running low

A Calgary pharmacy says its stocks of common children’s pain relievers are running low, but hopefully the problem won’t last long.

Some Canadian retailers have been struggling to maintain inventory of over-the-counter drugs containing acetaminophen, which is commonly known by the brand name Tylenol; or ibuprofen, commonly known as Advil. In particular, drug stores are having trouble keeping stock of liquid versions of the pain and fever relief medications for children.

Katie Levoe, owner of The Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy on 9 Avenue SW in downtown Calgary, says it’s been a few months since her branch has been able to get children’s liquid Tylenol and Advil.

“We’ve been able to get some of the chewable tablets for a while,” Levoe said.

She speculates the supply problem has been worsened by families panic buying the liquid pain reliever.

“If you want my honest opinion, people are just stocking up right now. Even just for adult Tylenol, we’ve been noticing that there has been a big shortage with that as well, we haven’t been able to get that for quite a while,” Levoe explains.

Levoe adds people may be afraid they won’t have access to the over-the-counter drugs they might need. She notes there are alternatives to buying the specific medications they’re used to, as they’ve become scarce in some places.

“I definitely would suggest maybe something else, maybe just the children’s cold and flu [medication], that one has been available for quite some time,” she said.

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From what Levoe has seen, she believes the issue will be short-lived.

“What we’ve been doing is we’ve been keeping things on backorder so as soon as it does become available, I’ve stocked up,” she said. “So it did become available and I ordered about 20 bottles and kept it on the shelf, and it went right away.”

Levoe adds some pharmacies are “compounding pharmacies” and are able to get around drug shortages by making the medications themselves. If patients desperately need a certain medication, it’s possible for a pharmacist to give them a prescription.

“We can take each active ingredient and we can put it together and mix it up into a certain desired strength that they need, so if they do need that desperately, we definitely could do that,” Levoe explained.

Health Canada said it’s aware that some acetaminophen and ibuprofen products for children are in short supply on the local level, and is working with stakeholders to address the problem, which has caused intermittent stock shortfalls since earlier this year.

“Health Canada urges patients not to buy more medications than usual,” spokesman Andre Gagnon said in an emailed statement. “This will help ensure that all Canadians continue to have access to the medications they need, and it will also help prevent drug shortages.”

Tylenol’s manufacturer said its children’s products are still available in stores and online.

“We continue to experience increased consumer-driven demand and are taking all possible measures to ensure product availability,” Johnson & Johnson said.

A spokesman for Food, Health & Consumer Products of Canada, an industry group that counts Johnson & Johnson as a member, said there are “pockets” of Canada where shortages have happened, but downplayed the severity of the issue.

“In many cases, if there’s a shortage at a particular pharmacy, those parents that are looking for that product are able to go to a secondary pharmacy and often find it without that much trouble,” said Anthony Fuchs on behalf of the group.

With files from Gaby Rios