ADHD medication supply to face ‘intermittent disruption’ until April
ADHD medication supplies will continue to face disruption until April 2024, the main manufacturer has told Sky News.
Pharmaceutical company Takeda, a major producer of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) drugs in the UK, said while they’re doing their “utmost” to resolve the current shortages, they’re anticipating “intermittent disruption” to supplies until April next year.
It comes after the NHS said shortages would be resolved at “various dates between October and December 2023”.
Charity ADHD UK estimates around 2.6m people in the UK are living with the condition, and medication use has doubled in the last five years.
The shortages mean many who depend on the medication to help with symptoms are rationing their pills, or having to drive miles to get prescriptions filled.
‘We’ve got to ring pharmacies up all over the country’
Georgie Miller was diagnosed with ADHD in 2019 after years of suffering with anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts.
She now relies on taking her medication for the condition on a daily basis to help with her job as an employment lawyer, but the recent shortages have meant that to buy the medication, she’s had to drive to pharmacies over two hours away from her home in York.
“We’ve got to ring pharmacies up all over the country to try and get some, and to take that time out of your day is so hard when you’re trying to work at the same time”, she said.
“In Yorkshire and within York itself, there’s none available, pretty much.”
Georgie is not alone in her struggle to find medication, after a survey by ADHD UK found 97% of people with the condition in the UK have been impacted by the shortages.
‘We have no plan B’
The NHS said the disruption to ADHD products is a combination both of manufacturing issues and an increase in demand.
However, pharmacology expert Dr Andrew Hill says the shortage is also a result of where medication is manufactured, and a failure in “stress-testing” supply chains.
“The UK doesn’t have control over our supply of these drugs because the manufacturing is happening in other countries.
“If one manufacturer for ADHD medications goes down, we have no plan B – we can’t be in this situation.”
For many people taking medication, the results can be “life-changing, according to Henry Shelford, chief executive of ADHD UK.
He told Sky News: “The sudden removal is like taking a wheelchair away from a disabled person that needs it.
“That’s what’s happening for people with ADHD in this medication crisis.”
A government spokesperson said while they understand how “frustrating and distressing” the medicine shortages have been, they are “working intensively” with suppliers to improve the situation, adding that some issues have now been resolved.