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.
Is the an increase demand issue (from around the world and locally) , limited supply issue or both?
I can see the increasing demand issue needing capital to fund expansions that some companies might be wary of?
India seems to be the world’s pill maker, have we outsourced too much?
We seem to now have a dizzying array of medications and an ever expanding list of drugs, is that complexity some of the bottleneck ?
Are we just enshitifying the medical field ?
Maybe Hobart would be better placed spending billions on a drug manufacturing plant to onshore production, rather then those billions being used for the hit and giggle stadium and a basslink duplication.
It is a supply chain issue not increased demand and it is not just Seroquel but a huge variety of medications as I said in another comment.
I don’t understand the issue in enough depth but I’ve had discussions with people who do and who think increased local manufacturing is the only way of addressing this. What’s more a government owned pharma corp mandated to ensure steady supply of off-patent essential meds could probably be run at a profit.
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