You are here

Difficulties in supplying Imatinib

A further problem has occurred just at the moment in that there would appear to be difficulties in supplying/delivering the first line drug Imatinib in appropriate quantities. This is worrying for those who are already sick people.

My local chemist has had weeks of difficulties in supplying my Imatinib at 600 mg daily. He has only been able to supply a few drugs at a time instead of the whole prescription. With hind sight i should have gone to my specialist sooner. Last week, however, my chemist rang me and said he could not get my drugs at all and that I should go to see my Specialist. I was actually out of the 100 mg tablets. He blamed the recession and said all chemists were similarly affected where expensive drugs were concerned.

After a long car journey (one and a half hours) I got to see my Specialist the next morning and they said that they were aware that many patients were having problems in getting their Imatinib supply from chemists. They told me to use a large Boots Chemists in a large city in future as it was the smaller chemists who were affected. The hospital gave me a prescription for my drugs to come from the hospital pharmacy - but the hospital pharmacy were also out of them and I was told they had another patient who was in need also and that they would need to contact another hospital pharmacy to get the supply. This meant another journey of the same duration the next day but at least I did come away with a supply of Imatinib in my hands.

When my next prescription is due it will be nerve racking to see if Boots can in effect come up with the goods! My own chemist who has supplied my Imatinib without difficulties for about the last two years - that is until recently - is deemed to be a small chemist by the powers that be - however, he supplies most of the prescription drugs prescribed by my Dr's surgery just around the corner and they have 11,000 patients on their books.

This is just a little word in your ears to be prepared.

With love, Pat P.

Hi Pat,
thanks for posting your experience here. It is best if we are all prepared as this might happen more frequently as small businesses (ie. chemists and pharmacies) have problems with cash flow.....

I am glad your hospital were able to take the pressure and supply you, after all they are your treatment centre and will take the responsibility for supply. For those who do collect prescriptions from smaller chemists please make sure they are able to continue to supply you with the correct amount - or use the larger pharmacy chains.

Best wishes,

Sandy

Hi All

I now think this is what we came across a couple of months ago when our pharmacist could only supply a month at a time, rather than the whole three months prescribed. The Daily Mail today has an article about drugs being sold abroad rather than in the UK leaving our NHS patients short.....
Hope this is not the case. Have a read and see what you think?

Bee

mmmm... I would say there is no shortage from the manufacturer- it is to do with recession and therefore the pressure that small businesses, like independent chemists ,have been under and are continuing to deal with. It is a problem of cash flow - smaller chemists cannot afford to invest extra cash in keeping large stocks of expensive items on their shelves, preferring to buy stock on a short term basis. That is the reason why they only buy the minimum, just in case they go bust and are left with stock rather than cash in the bank- they would not admit that and would prefer to put the blame elsewhere- like the suppliers etc.
Sandy

There is an explanation for the current situation of supply shortages of Glivec .
The UK is now the cheapest market in Europe for branded medicines and due to the weak Pound against the Euro it is highly profitable for so called parallel traders to buy up, especially, from smaller community pharmacies any excess stock of pharmacy drugs -as early as November last year Glivec was on a list of 56 drugs reported to be in short supply.It has been estimated that up to 1750 UK pharmacies have purchased volumes of drugs that are not in line with normal patterns. It is not illegal to import or export pharmacy drugs in the EU and is part of free trade etc as provisions under the Treaty of Rome and so on.When the pound is less than 1.25 Euro is is very profitable to export drugs ;above that exchange rate parallel traders import lots of drugs from Europe and repackage them if necessary(language) and this saves the NHS money-but the dangers of counterfeit drugs creeping in needs to be flagged up.
According to my calculations diverting two months supply of Glivec from UK to Europe when the rate is £1 to Euro £1.08 can lead to profits of over £500 for the trader.There is a lot in the pharmaceutical trade press and websites on this issue at the moment.
Previously I sourced my Glivec from a hospital pharmacy but it was some distance away and then they gave two months maximum and then one month of a three month prescription ,so I then asked my local small Boots to take on my prescription.
My Boots pharmacist Jenny has always been helpful in suggesting non prescription solutions for my swollen eyelids and continual mild conjunctivitis and so on-the minor side effects and the small price to pay for the benefits of Glivec:so I thought I would take up her offer to prescribe Glivec next time around.
However when I gave the prescription to her she could only get one month of a three months supply from the wholesaler and the pharmacy has been trying for weeks to get the other two months but without success and we have less than ten days supply left.The good news is that my pharmacist contacted Novartis the manufacturer and faxed a copy of my prescription to them and on an emergency basis have today supplied the pharmacy direct-one month or two months ,I am not sure.It took a week to organise rather than the 48 hours as promised so I guess Novartis are under pressure to supply direct to many pharmacies.
I suspect that the fact that I changed my source of the drug may have been an issue(it changed the distribution pattern) as apparently my small Boots pharmacy has only one other patient sourcing Glivec from there-hence Novartis needed authentication of who I was and to make sure that the drug was not being diverted.
I believe that Novartis is trying to manage and control the distribution process so as to minimise the actions of the parallel exporters and speculators.

So my advice would be, yes, use Boots as per suggestions from other contributors but if you are up against in terms of nearly running out ,ask your pharmacist on an exceptional basis to contact Novartis Customer Care and if necessary fax a copy of the prescription through to them .I was running out of options and thought of asking my GP to prepare a letter as well so as to fax through with the prescription to Novartis but at this stage that wont be necessary.

I have E mailed to my MP Anne Milton , for Guildford, who is in a shadow Health position for the opposition asking her to ask the government:
-What actions it is proposing to take to secure the supply and distribution of life saving drugs such as Glivec
-What actions it proposes to take to limit and control the unethical actions of parallel exporters and speculators of pharmacy drugs

I know that Anne has been working behind the scenes on this and that
this is not a matter for political differences and both parties share concerns on this issue -I am pleased to note that on 9 February Minister for Health Mike O Brien in a Press Release announced that the Government is aware of the problem of pharmacy drugs being diverted to Europe. In early March there will be a summit with all organisations in the supply chain of medicines to better understand the issues involved and what might be done to address them.
However, I believe in the short run there will be some supply problems for Glivec and if it continues I suggest that we need to alert our MPs and others to the fact that we have a drug that is very effective but patients health is at severe risk if we are unable to source our prescriptions of Glivec.
I advise all of us to prepared to find different ways of finding Glivec in the next few months possibly direct from Novartis to the pharmacy.So be prepared as it will take a while to sort out the issues.
I have been on Glivec for three years and have great support from my consultant and my GP and am doing really well and am too old for any alternative solution.None of us should be threatened by drug supply problems created as a result of a weak pound and pharmacy drug speculators and free trade in the EU.
Best wishes
John

Dear John.... thanks so much for the explanation about the situation with traders and speculators. I have spoken with someone at Novartis on this issue and was told that this is a real problem.... as you say it is not illegal!

Your advice is very welcome and I hope that all those who might find this an issue will take your advice and organise a direct supply via Novartis direct to the pharmacy.... and to set this up with plenty of time/Glivec to spare.

Thanks again for such a clear explanation of this difficult situation. I am sure everyone will find that most helpful.

best wishes,
Sandy

My supply comes from a local small Boots and they always get it direct from Novartis, who are 15 miles down the road, when they get my prescription. I assume that cash flow is not an issue since they only order it against a prescription. Last time, they supplied first one month, and then the remaining two months. They cited "production problems" for which perhaps read "parallel exports".

John

Today, I got three months supply without problem.

John

That's good to know John. Thanks.
Ted's now had 2 out of his current 3 months supply - but still only one month at a time at the moment. Hopefully things will be back to normal here soon as well, but won't know of course till his next 3 months prescription.
Bee