Posted by ed_uk2010 on February 9, 2015, at 14:30:03
In reply to Re: Nortriptyline D/C'ed in Canada..drug shortage!HELP, posted by busub on February 9, 2015, at 9:38:57
Hi J
>My pharmacist told me this today...and I googled it and it is true!
OK, does this apply to all manufacturers though? I found online that there seems to be a problem with the Apotex brand. Other manufacturers which have supplied nortriptyline in Canada include AA pharma (brand name, Aventyl), Pro Doc, Pharmascience (PMS-nortriptyline) and TEVA. Is there a supply issue affecting all of these companies? It might be worth asking at a different pharmacy to find out what their suppliers have available.
>this is THE drug that has taken me out of fear and panic...
Fortunately, if you do need to switch, there are several alternative tricyclics which might be suitable. Have you tried any other tricyclics? I don't think you'll need any kind of ultra complex combination to replace nortriptyline.
Apart from nortriptyline 150mg, what medication do you take at the moment?
>But if there is a shortage in Canada...would there be one in the US?
Not necessarily. It depends on the reason behind the shortage. There are occasionally worldwide shortages of certain products, which tend to occur when there are only 1 or 2 manufacturers of the drug itself, which is then sold to many different companies to make into tablets/capsules. If a lone supplier has a problem, many tablet manufacturers will potentially be affected. Even in this situation, countries are affected variably depending on how much stock they have available and how frequently the drug is prescribed.
In other cases, drug shortages occur in one country only, and other countries are not affected at all. This tends to happen when the reason for a shortage is localised and not related to any kind of worldwide issue with the active pharmaceutical ingredient.
poster:ed_uk2010
thread:1076136
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20150129/msgs/1076177.html