Canada-wide shortage of children's pain medicine touches Yukon families

Families in the Yukon are feeling the effects of a countrywide shortage of children's pain medication.

For months, manufacturers of children's ibuprofen and acetaminophen have struggled to keep up with demand, leaving pharmacies across the country unable to keep regular stock of the products.

That's caused confusion and frustration among parents who aren't seeing the medication on store shelves.

Ashley Lukinuk, who lives in Whitehorse and has a one-year-old daughter, said the situation has been tough. Lukinuk and her friends have had to ration what products they can find and share among themselves because they've been so hard to find.

"It's a constant search basically," she said. "Every time I go to the grocery store, it's just part of the routine to walk by and see if they have any more and ask the pharmacist."

Lukinuk has friends and family in B.C., and said they've been keeping an eye out for any medicine they can ship to her. In the meantime, she said she's had to make hard decisions about when it's absolutely necessary to give her daughter pain medicine.

"My daughter was sick over the weekend, and we really had to question: 'Does she really need Tylenol?'" she said. "If it wasn't such an issue, I probably would have just said 'here's some Tylenol, so you can feel better. Ultimately, she suffers a little bit more."

Joanne Gibson, president of the Yukon Pharmacists Association, said the shortage is the result of supply chain problems; manufacturers in Canada can't locate enough raw ingredients to meet current market demand. Until production ramps up enough to meet the current need, wholesalers are supplying pharmacies on allocation, meaning they won't send large shipments to individual stores or chains.

"They're distributing equal quantities to all pharmacies," Gibson said. "So it's coming in sort of dribs and drabs."

Sometimes, Gibson said, pharmacies are running out altogether. Because supply is so low, Gibson said many pharmacies are keeping the products behind the counter to limit purchases per household.

"There's maybe nothing on the shelf," she said. "And if that's the case, I would encourage parents to ask the pharmacist because there may be alternatives that they can suggest based on age, weight and other symptoms of the child."

Danielle Paes is the chief pharmacist officer for the Canadian Pharmacists Association. She said the pandemic has also played a role in the shortage.

"The demand is being fuelled by panic-buying, but also the high levels of virus activity," she said. "COVID-19, among all the other viruses that are currently in circulation in the community, coupled with back-to-school season and the onset of cough and cold season as well."

In a statement released earlier this month, Health Canada said it was monitoring the supply and working with manufacturers to increase production. It's not clear how long the shortage will last.