By Berkeley Lovelace Jr. -
NBC News
After seven months of national Adderall shortages, pharmacist Steve Moore continues to receive daily calls from people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) asking if he has the drug in stock.
He occasionally gets visitors from out of town too.
“It's quite a long drive,” explains Moore, owner of Condo Pharmacy in Plattsburgh, New York, a small town just south of the Canadian border.
But Moore has to turn them down.
Some doses are not expected to be available until mid-May at the earliest, a month later than expected, according to the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) drug shortage database.
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“Obviously I want to help as many as I can,” Moore said, “but if I know I have three patients that need this particular product, I'm trying to make sure that the patients that we know are coming in have what they need.”
The FDA first confirmed a national shortage of Adderall in October, following a surge in demand for the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder drug during the coronavirus pandemic.
Although supply problems have since improved, some pharmacies say they are still out of stock of the drug or its generic versions.
The supply problem means that people with ADHD who need the drug are forced to turn to other medications or wait several weeks for their prescriptions.
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“We mainly get calls from people asking if we have the drug in stock, and we have to tell them no,” said Mike Koelzer, pharmacist and owner of Kay Pharmacy in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Koelzer said the shortage has hurt his business financially because he doesn't have enough stock for his regular customers, forcing them to look elsewhere for the drug.
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Sometimes your pharmacy stocks other ADHD medications, but even these, like Ritalin, are also in short supply.
Koelzer adds that people often get frustrated and worried when they can't find the medication they need.
“We don't have good answers for them, unless they double check or try another pharmacy,” he said.
“It has been a difficult situation for both us and our clients.”
How long will the shortage last?
The supply problem could persist for a few weeks or more.
According to the FDA's drug shortage database, some doses of a generic version of Adderall, from drugmaker Alvogen, are expected to be in short supply until later this month or mid-May.
Granules Pharmaceuticals, another generic maker of Adderall, is not expected to make it available until May, according to the agency.
Teva Pharmaceuticals, the nation's largest supplier of brand Adderall, said it is not experiencing manufacturing issues or shortages, but noted that some US pharmacies and patients could experience "intermittent delays" in getting the drug.
NBC News, sister chain of Noticias Telemundo, has contacted the ten companies that appear in the FDA database as out of stock.
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Michael Ganio, senior director of pharmacy practice at the American Society of Health System Pharmacists, which tracks drug shortages, said the organization first heard about Adderall's supply issues about a year ago.
Manufacturers at the time attributed the problem to a lack of workers, and have tried to ramp up production ever since, with mixed results.
Adderall capsules. Jenny Kane / AP
To further complicate matters, Adderall is a controlled and regulated substance by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which sets limits on the amount of active ingredient manufacturers can produce in a given period. .
Manufacturers must get DEA approval before going over their quotas.
“It is very difficult to assess the increase in demand, which has been a challenge for manufacturers,” he said, adding that some of them have stopped selling the drugs to new customers.
Meanwhile, pharmacies are adapting.
CVS Health and Walgreens said they are aware of the shortage and are continuing to work with providers or patients to help meet demand.
“Our pharmacists will work with patients who are prescribed this medication as needed,” Matt Blanchette, a CVS Health spokesman, said in a statement.
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Other pharmacies will have to continue turning away patients.
Benjamin Jolley, a pharmacist and director of Jolley's Compounding Pharmacy in Salt Lake City, said the pharmacy is not accepting new customers.
He was able to buy 10 bottles of Adderall on Wednesday morning, the first time he had been able to buy it in two weeks.
“The wholesaler texted me and said, 'Hey, we've got some if you want it.
Go buy it right now.'”
The purchase means that the dozen people who buy the drug at your pharmacy will be able to fill their prescriptions.
“It's a hard product to come by,” Jolley says.
