LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Faced with skyrocketing flu cases, pharmacies in Louisville are seeing shortages of a common, yet popular flu treatment.
Tamiflu is a common anti-viral drug for both treatment and prevention of the flu. This flu season, pharmacists like Corey Stark at Art Jacob Prescription Shoppe are noticing increasing demand for Tamiflu.
“I didn’t know there was a shortage of Tamiflu until our phone started blowing up," Stark said. “My phone has rang a lot even this morning, 'Hey at Thanksgiving my friend came over and now they’re positive, I’m going to get my doctor to write a prescription, do you have it?'"
Stark said his pharmacy makes many of their own prescriptions and specializes in hard-to-get medications. Now, he said customers are calling hoping to fill Tamiflu prescriptions when other pharmacies have run out.
“We spend a good portion of our day sourcing products that are hard to find to help a patient save money, or they’ve already tried five pharmacies and can’t find it," he said. “If we can’t get the commercially available product we’re compounding Tamiflu as well.”
Stark said he's still able to get small amounts of Tamiflu, because he has a wide range of suppliers, but other national chains are expecting isolated shortages.
In a statement, a representative from CVS wrote:
"While we’re not experiencing a widespread shortage of Tamiflu at this time, we are seeing increased demand at our stores nationwide and sporadic shipping from select manufacturers. We're continuing to supply stores with Tamiflu and other flu-related medications using our existing inventory network, but there will be increased instances when individual pharmacies could be temporarily out-of-stock. We’re closely monitoring the situation and are working with suppliers to ensure our patients have access to flu-related medications."
Similarly, a statement from Walgreens stated: "We are experiencing isolated and temporary shortages of Tamiflu (oseltamivir), and we advise our customers to call their local Walgreens pharmacy to inquire about availability."
Stark said there have also been shortages of antibiotics like amoxicillin and some office medications like lidocaine.
"Tamiflu is that hot topic because everybody has the flu, but there are shortages all across the board," he said. “It just seems there’s a backlog of people going to the doctor and a lot of sick people and they can’t keep up with the demand.”
Until the flu season wanes, Stark recommends calling around to your own pharmacy, and other local options, before you go to a doctor for a prescription. He said that way you'll know which locations still have Tamiflu in stock.
"There aren’t ones that will work like Tamiflu to cover all the strains of the flu virus," he said. "If you can’t get Tamiflu, its going to pretty much be supportive care.”
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