By Matis Glenn

Manufacturers of the popular antibiotic Amoxicillin are reporting shortages of child doses nationwide, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The shortage of the drug, used as a go-to drug to treat a wide array of bacteria-related infections, is causing wholesalers to sell doses in limited quantities, and many are completely out of stock.

Concerns mount as winter approaches, since infections commonly treated by Amoxicillin, such as strep throat, occur more frequently during the cold months.

Most of the manufacturers who reported the shortage to the FDA, including Teva, Hikma, and Aurobindo, cited increasing demand of the product as the reason for the shortage; major manufacturer Sandoz has yet to give an explanation.

Jim McKinney, a spokesperson for the FDA, said in a statement that the agency is “aware of some intermittent supply interruptions of amoxicillin products in the U.S, and are currently working with the approved manufacturers.” While the FDA works to prevent drug shortages, McKinney explained that there are “a number of factors that can cause or contribute to drug shortages that are out of the FDA’s control. Drug Shortages can occur for many reasons, including manufacturing and quality problems, delays, and discontinuations.”

The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists said it started hearing about shortages of both tablets and oral solutions about three weeks ago, according to US News.

“Generally, what we see in the drug shortages is on the production side,” Michael Ganio, the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists’ senior director for pharmacy practice and quality, told CNN. “In this case, we don’t have any indication from the manufacturers that they’re having any sort of difficulty with production,” “This one seems to be driven by demand, which is a little unusual.”

Ganio says that the increased demand could be due to a recent rise in RSV viruses among children; even though antibiotics are not viable treatments for viruses, they are used to treat secondary bacterial infections that often arise during or after the illness.

A source familiar with the pharmaceutical industry tells Hamodia that it’s possible that manufacturers are not producing a lot of children’s dosages because they stand to gain far less money from them than from the adult sized pills. People shouldn’t panic, he says, because there are many readily available alternatives to Amoxicillin, such as Omnicef and Augmentin.

As the infection-heavy winter season looms, local pharmacies are concerned about how they will be able to fill prescriptions.

“It’s been going on for several weeks,” a pharmacist at one Boro Park pharmacy told Hamodia.

“So far we have enough,” but he is concerned that if left unmitigated, the supply shortage could become a problem for his pharmacy in coming months.

Another pharmacist in Boro Park says that he’s able to buy childrens’ Amoxicillin from ”one source with an increase in price, and they have a cap on how much they’re willing to sell us…it sounds like the Purell story all over again.”

He agreed that profit margins might be making Amoxicillin less appealing to manufacturers. “I think companies are seeing that it’s not worth making anymore, because there’s no profit. There used to be five or six companies that make it; now it’s down to three.”

A Flatbush pharmacist says that he’s “hanging in there,” by converting the dosage of the Amoxicillin that he’s been able to procure, but he’s unable to buy any more at this time. “We’re working with what we have, but we’re going to run out soon.”

Another Flatbush pharmacist says that he uses an online tool which connects pharmacists with wholesalers; none of them are offering childrens’ Amoxicillin at this time. One of his usual suppliers was incredulous when asked if he had any childrens’ Amoxicillin in stock.

Major chain pharmacies, however, don’t seem to be as affected. A spokesperson for Walgreens told CNN that the company hasn’t seen any shortages; CVS told NBC News that that they’ve only experienced isolated shortages in “a few stores…of certain doses” of the drug.

The United States isn’t the only country where childrens’ Amoxicillin is running low. Ireland, Australia, Malaysia and Romania have also reported shortages due to manufacturing issues and unexpected demand, according to CNN.

Source: Hamodia