Monday, June 10, 2013

Another Drug Shortage? Help Us Find Out!


by Ruth Hughes, PhD

Your help is needed to prevent another medication shortage. Recently, CHADD has been getting complaints from people experiencing difficulty in getting generic versions of methylphenidate (Ritalin). We want to be very sure to identify any drug shortage before it gets as serious as the problems we had in 2011 and 2012. We do know that two pharmaceutical companies (Mallinckrodt and Shionogi) have reported shortages to the Food and Drug Administration for versions of methylphenidate.

Tell us about your experience by answering a small number of questions in our drug shortage survey. We need to hear from you even if you are having no problems, so we can gauge how serious any growing shortage might be. The survey will only take a few minutes to fill out and can help us ensure that there is an adequate supply of stimulant medication available.

Once again CHADD and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry are working together to address this problem. If the survey results indicate we do have a shortage, we will approach the Secretary of Health and Human Services to ask the Drug Enforcement Agency to address this issue immediately. But your input is absolutely needed if we are to identify the scope of the problems.

Please click HERE to complete this short survey by June 12.  We will share the results with you at the end of the month.
  
Thank you for your feedback.


Ruth Hughes, PhD, is CEO of CHADD.