D.I.Y. Tamiflu for Kids: Pharmacists Cope With Shortage

Nov. 5, 2009— -- Parents who take their sick kids to the pharmacy expecting to get the child-friendly liquid version of the antiviral drug Tamiflu may be surprised to discover that their pharmacist is fresh out.

With the government having disbursed the last 234,000 courses of liquid Tamiflu from its strategic national stockpile last week, pharmacists across the country now find themselves staring down the barrel of a shortage of the version of the drug that they often prescribe to children who have difficulty swallowing pills.

"It's a real challenge nowadays," said Ron Keech, pharmacist at Village Green Apothecary in Bethesda, Md. "My understanding is that we can get about one bottle a month from the local wholesaler. [They're] kind of rationing it out so that at least some places have it, but it's enough for maybe one prescription."

Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Tuesday that options to get Tamiflu to the kids that need it still exist.

"There are capsules for children that are available in good supply," she said. "In addition, there's a way that pharmacies can convert capsules that adults get into liquid form for children, called compounding, and that's another way that we can expand availability."

Specifically, on Oct. 31 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a reminder on its guidance to pharmacies on "emergency compounding" of liquid Tamiflu, which instructs them on how to use Tamiflu pills to mix their own batches of liquid Tamiflu. Schuchat added that the CDC is also helping parents make their own liquid form of the drug by letting them "know how to use the pediatric capsule and mix it up with chocolate syrup or some other kind of syrup at home."

Keech said that in his 32 years as a pharmacist, this is the first time he has seen the FDA and the CDC issue such notices urging compounding because of a shortage of a commercially made drug. Michael Olzinski, director of Pharmacy Services at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, is just one of the pharmacists who has resorted to this approach.

"We can't get any pediatric Tamiflu from our wholesalers right now," he said. "We have compounded some from the capsules, but would prefer not to."

Dan Karant, a pharmacist at the Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy in Norton, Ohio, related a similar experience.

"Most pharmacies are having great difficulty ordering Tamiflu in suspension form," he said. He added that even though he had some of the liquid form left, he is already planning to mix his own supply when that runs out.