CVS Health Corp. and Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc., 2 of the largest US pharmacy chains, are limiting purchases of children’s pain-relief medicines amid constrained supplies and precocious demand.
Related: Children’s medicine shortage hits arsenic flu play starts fast
CVS is restricting shoppers to 2 products each for in-store and online purchases. Walgreens is limiting online orders to six products and isn’t mounting limits for in-store purchases. Walmart Inc. isn’t placing immoderate acquisition limits, portion Kroger Co. said it is asking shoppers to bounds purchases to 2 kids symptom medicine products. Rite Aid Corp. isn’t limiting purchases.
“Due to accrued request and assorted supplier challenges, over-the-counter pediatric fever-reducing products are seeing constraint crossed the country,” Walgreens said successful an email without offering much details connected the supplier challenges.
Pediatric medicines containing acetaminophen and ibuprofen, which relieve symptom and trim fever, person been hard to travel by crossed the US and Canada since astatine slightest October arsenic respiratory viruses spread. Rates of hospitalization for respiratory syncytial virus, oregon RSV, and influenza person reached heights not seen successful caller years. The drugs don’t termination the viruses, but they bash relieve symptoms.
More US children had been hospitalized successful 2022 for influenza arsenic of Dec. 10 than successful immoderate different twelvemonth since 2009, according to information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. RSV hospitalizations are the highest since 2018, erstwhile the bureau began tracking.
On Oct. 7, Canadian wellness authorities posted a announcement online alerting the nationalist that childrens formulations of some types of drugs were constricted due to the fact that of precocious demand. “Over the summertime months, determination was unprecedented request for these products and proviso had not kept pace,” Health Canada said successful a statement.
The Consumer Healthcare Products Association, a US enactment which represents companies that marque the medicines, said the scarcity “is a nonstop effect of the caller and accelerated summation successful request driven by a rise successful pediatric cases of respiratory illnesses including the flu, COVID, and RSV.”
A CVS determination successful downtown Boston had a motion posted connected Monday greeting informing shoppers of the two-item limit. The lone kids acetaminophen oregon ibuprofen merchandise connected the support was a 12-pack of store-brand acetaminophen suppositories.
A spokesperson for Johnson & Johnson, which manufactures Motrin and Tylenol, said that the childrens mentation of those medicines “may beryllium little readily disposable astatine immoderate stores.”
Haleon Plc, which sells Advil, a merchandise made with ibuprofen, declined to comment, referring to the Consumer Healthcare Products Association.
English (US)