In short:

An antipsychotic medication often prescribed to people with schizophrenia or bipolar is in short supply.

Pharmacists and doctors have told the ABC they were not made aware of supply issues until the issue was raised by patients who could not find refills.

What's next?

The TGA says shortages are expected to be resolved in a few months and in the meantime, people can try and source other generic versions instead.

top 5 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] Joshi@aussie.zone 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Medication shortages are the biggest ongoing problem that no-one is talking about.

I've been a doc for 10 years and before COVID I can think of one medication shortage that impacted patient care, now it's a constant issue. The TGA has 414 ongoing shortages that are listed including 41 that are critical (Medicine shortage reports database )

We've had to deal with shortages of everything from reflux medication to liquid morphine for palliative patients to a shortage last year of amoxy-fucking-cillin!

Many of these can be dealt with by substituting a similar medication but this has often lead to subsequent shortages of the alternatives. Needless to say it isn't ideal to be chopping and changing antipsychotic medications.

[–] the_toast_is_gone@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

Almost all antipsychotics need to be tapered off. If someone suddenly stops, it can end badly for them. Add to that the facts that quetiapine is one of the most common and effective APs, the importance of treating psychosis and mood stability as effectively as possible, and most people having to do trial and error to find the right medication for them? This is a recipe for disaster.

[–] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Is the an increase demand issue (from around the world and locally) , limited supply issue or both?

I can see the increasing demand issue needing capital to fund expansions that some companies might be wary of?

India seems to be the world's pill maker, have we outsourced too much?

We seem to now have a dizzying array of medications and an ever expanding list of drugs, is that complexity some of the bottleneck ?

Are we just enshitifying the medical field ?

Maybe Hobart would be better placed spending billions on a drug manufacturing plant to onshore production, rather then those billions being used for the hit and giggle stadium and a basslink duplication.

[–] Joshi@aussie.zone 1 points 1 month ago

It is a supply chain issue not increased demand and it is not just Seroquel but a huge variety of medications as I said in another comment.

I don't understand the issue in enough depth but I've had discussions with people who do and who think increased local manufacturing is the only way of addressing this. What's more a government owned pharma corp mandated to ensure steady supply of off-patent essential meds could probably be run at a profit.

[–] melbaboutown@aussie.zone 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I’m not sure but it could be a supply chain issue. I’ve noticed some groceries being out of stock for ages and once there was a shortage of my cat’s vaccinations and another of her medications.

Or some issue with the factory. There was/is a shortage of IV fluids in America because the factory was in the path of a natural disaster, and it does mention nonspecific manufacturing constraints. No idea whether that’s physical, financial or contamination issues.

There’s definitely a mental health crisis that has probably worsened after covid and/or the increased prevalence of meth, so there may be higher demand. The mental health system is stretched and underfunded so it’s possible that it’s more efficient in the short term to give enough medication to reliably control symptoms, enable discharge and allow care in the community to free up beds.

Seems it’s a popular med. And also there’s competition for the limited supply of brand name medication for those who can’t use the generic.

And it talks about not having had enough of a reserve in Australia.

(Also probably enshittification and outsourcing manufacturing to cheaper more easily exploited countries.)

It’s probably a combination of things.

I agree I’d like more local manufacturers of everything. Being an island nation dependent on imports for essentials is low key existential fear