Supply of children's medications will hit Canadian shelves soon: feds
The shortage of medications across Canada — including kids’ Tylenol — will soon be curbed, thanks to foreign imports, which are expected to become available at drugstores and pharmacies soon.
Dr. Supriya Sharma, chief medical adviser with Health Canada, held a press conference on Friday morning, announcing that the medication will hit shelves after next week.
“Let me start by saying that I understand that this is a very stressful situation for parents and caregivers. The combination of RSV (respiratory syncytial virus), the flu, and COVID is hitting our country hard,” Sharma began.
Chief Public Health Officer of Canada Dr. Theresa Tam also echoed how important it is to ensure you take precautionary measures to stay safe this season during the multi-disease wave.Â
“At the national level, lab test positivity is at 8% for RSV, and 16% for influenza. Both of these viruses are having a large impact on children, and the proportion of influenza detections among children and teenagers is unusually high,” she said. “As a result, a number of paediatric hospitals across the countries across the country have reported unprecedented levels of viral respiratory, respiratory infection related ER visits and admissions.”
She added that while there is no vaccine available for RSV in Canada yet, there are vaccines available to protect children aged six months or older from severe illness due to influenza.
Health Canada says that it has been exploring all levers at its disposal to help alleviate the situation, including meeting with stakeholders like manufacturers, retailers, and healthcare professionals on a weekly basis to share information and strategies to minimize the impact of the shortage of medications.
“We’ve worked with manufacturers to allow access to foreign products to supplement Canada’s supply,” said Dr. Sharma. “After next week, more than one million bottles of product will have entered Canada to supply hospitals, community pharmacies and real retailers and medications will start appearing on store shelves starting early next week.”
These foreign products include liquid ibuprofen for kids and liquid acetaminophen for children and infants.
Dr. Sharma noted that while this is encouraging, Health Canada is continuing to identify additional sources of foreign supplies of both acetaminophen and ibuprofen.
“Early next week, we will be posting a table of products authorized for import,” she stated. “We’ll continue to update this table as we authorize more product.”
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