In short:
An antipsychotic medication often prescribed to people with schizophrenia or bipolar is in short supply.
Pharmacists and doctors have told the ABC they were not made aware of supply issues until the issue was raised by patients who could not find refills.
What’s next?
The TGA says shortages are expected to be resolved in a few months and in the meantime, people can try and source other generic versions instead.
I’m not sure but it could be a supply chain issue. I’ve noticed some groceries being out of stock for ages and once there was a shortage of my cat’s vaccinations and another of her medications.
Or some issue with the factory. There was/is a shortage of IV fluids in America because the factory was in the path of a natural disaster, and it does mention nonspecific manufacturing constraints. No idea whether that’s physical, financial or contamination issues.
There’s definitely a mental health crisis that has probably worsened after covid and/or the increased prevalence of meth, so there may be higher demand. The mental health system is stretched and underfunded so it’s possible that it’s more efficient in the short term to give enough medication to reliably control symptoms, enable discharge and allow care in the community to free up beds.
Seems it’s a popular med. And also there’s competition for the limited supply of brand name medication for those who can’t use the generic.
And it talks about not having had enough of a reserve in Australia.
(Also probably enshittification and outsourcing manufacturing to cheaper more easily exploited countries.)
It’s probably a combination of things.
I agree I’d like more local manufacturers of everything. Being an island nation dependent on imports for essentials is low key existential fear