Calgary pharmacist hopes secured supply of children’s pain, fever medication eases demand
A Calgary pharmacist is welcoming the Alberta Government’s procurement of five million bottles of children’s pain and fever medication as demand skyrockets and pharmacies struggle to fill their shelves.
“I think the government is doing its best, so I think they should keep working and bring more stock,” said Mubeen Sadiq, pharmacist and owner of the Pharmedic Pharmacy on Macleod Trail S.W.
Sadiq said right now, his pharmacy is managing with the supply it has, but he would still like to see more.
“We have about 15 bottles sitting here. We have generic Tylenol, we have brand Tylenol,” he said.
Sadiq’s pharmacy is also able to do compounding, meaning it can customize and make its own medication — a process many other qualified pharmacies have turned to as they deal with supply shortages.
CTV News spoke to 10 pharmacies in Calgary on Tuesday.
About half say they have some supply, while the rest say they have nothing and don’t know when they’ll get more.
On Tuesday, Premier Danielle Smith and Health Minister Jason Copping announced their government has secured five million bottles of children’s acetaminophen and ibuprofen that will be distributed across the province and any extra will be shared with the rest of the country.
The supplier, Turkey-based Atabay Pharmaceutical and Fine Chemicals, has sold to dozens of markets in Europe and around the world.
Health Canada still needs to approve the medication.
“Once approvals are in place, which should only be a few weeks, the medication will be sent to us in a number of shipments. When a shipment is received, the bottles will be available for ordering by pharmacies across the province and distributed within a couple days,” Copping said.
Just last month, Health Canada began importing and distributing one million bottles of children’s pain reliever medication to hospitals, pharmacies and other retailers across the country.
“There is now a supply of Tylenol in the province and pharmacists are predominantly mostly keeping it behind the counter so that they can interact with each parent or patient that is seeking it and do proper patient assessment,” said Margaret Wing, CEO of the Alberta Pharmacists’ Association.
However, Wing says it’s still not enough to meet the demand here and across the country, but she hopes this new procurement will be.
The province is expecting to pay a premium for the five million bottles and will subsidize the cost so that pharmacies can sell them at the “average retail price.”
The total cost to taxpayers hasn’t been set.
“We want to make sure parents have access to the medication that they need because if (children) can’t break the fever, they end up in the hospital rooms and that is what’s causing the pressure on our hospitals, not here but across the country,” Smith said.
Some, including the Alberta NDP, call this a step in the right direction, but say more needs to be done.
Dr. Joe Vipond, an emergency room physician in Calgary, said the medication will be a relief to families, but it won’t ease the pressure on hospitals.
“Kids are being admitted to the hospital because they’re sick. They’re sick with sepsis, they’re sick with respiratory failure, they can’t breathe and no amount of painkiller or anti-fever medication is going to fix that,” he told CTV News.
A political commentator says the Alberta government is also showing what it can do without Ottawa.
“This could fit into that larger narrative of the Alberta government sort of talking about what Alberta can and should be doing for itself and sort of being critical of the federal government for not being able to accomplish as much,” said Lori Williams.
“I don’t think parents care which government is acting to help treat illnesses and their children – all they care about is the health and welfare of their children.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'They needed people inside Air Canada:' Police announce arrests in Pearson gold heist
Police say one former and one current employee of Air Canada are among the nine suspects that are facing charges in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year.
Why drivers in Eastern Canada could see big gas price spikes, and other Canadians won't
Drivers in Eastern Canada face a big increase in gas prices because of various factors, especially the higher cost of the summer blend, industry analysts say.
Customers disappointed after email listing $60K Tim Hortons prize sent in error
Several Tim Horton’s customers are feeling great disappointment after being told by the company that an email stating they won a boat worth nearly $60,000 was sent in error.
Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter banned from NBA
Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter has been handed a lifetime ban from The National Basketball Association (NBA) following an investigation which found he disclosed confidential information to sports bettors, the league says.
House admonishes ArriveCan contractor in rare parliamentary show of power
MPs enacted an extraordinary, rarely used parliamentary power on Wednesday, summonsing an ArriveCan contractor to appear before the House of Commons where he was admonished publicly and forced to provide answers to the questions MPs said he'd previously evaded.
Woman who pressured boyfriend to kill his ex in 2000s granted absences from prison
A woman who pressured her boyfriend into killing his teenage ex more than a decade ago will be allowed to leave prison for weeks at a time.
Attempt to have murder charge quashed against alleged serial killer dismissed by judge
A motion filed by the man accused of killing four Indigenous women in Winnipeg to have one of those murder charges quashed has been dismissed by the judge – weeks before the start of his trial.
Government proposes new policy for federally regulated employees to disconnect from work
In their 2024 budget, the federal government wants to amend the Canada Labour Code, so employers in federally regulated sectors will eliminate work-related communication with employees outside of scheduled hours. If implemented, this would affect roughly 500,000 employees across the country.
Earthquake jolts southern Japan
An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.4 hit southern Japan late on Wednesday, said the Japan Meteorological Agency, without issuing a tsunami warning.