Response 875419169

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About you

1. What is your name?

Mark Ashton

3. Which of the following best describes you?

Please select one item
(Required)
Medicine sponsor/manufacturer/wholesaler representative organisation
Health professional representative organisation
Consumer representative organisation
Government agency
Research/academia/media
Individual sponsor/manufacturer/wholesaler/retailer
Individual health professional, please specify type
Individual consumer/general public/community member
Other, please specify
Pharmacist

4. Organisation name:

Goomalling Pharmacy

5. Size of organisation:

Please select one item
Small (20 employees and under)
Medium (20-199 employees)
Large (over 200 employees)

6. Have you been affected by a medicine shortage or discontinuation in the last 12 months?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Unsure

7. If yes, please list which medicine shortage(s) and/or discontinuation(s).

Ozempic
Stemetil
Vyvanse
Gliclazide

Planning for medicine shortages and discontinuations

8. What do you do to plan proactively for a medicine shortage or discontinuation? Select all that apply.

Please select all that apply
Monitor medicine availability (supply, demand)
Seek out information about shortages and discontinuations
Manage stock levels
Plan for alternative treatments in case of shortage
Change the way medicine is prescribed/dispensed/taken (e.g. rationing)
Other

9. Please explain in more detail how you plan proactively for a medicine shortage or discontinuation, including any barriers or challenges you experience.

So I aim to make sure I hold 2-3 months of stock of medicines. This has a big coat on my business but also helps reduce the odds of me running short when medicines go out of stock.

10. [Pharmaceutical companies only] What measures do you use to monitor and predict medicine supply including disruptions and increases in demand? Are there any barriers or challenges?

Tga short medicines reports
Wholesaler reports

These are not always accurate and sometimes by the time they get reported it’s too late. They are already out of stock

Also when it does get reported it can cause a panic buy and worsen the out of stock.

Responding to medicine shortages and discontinuations

11. Please outline how you respond to a medicine shortage or discontinuation, including any barriers or challenges you experience.

This always required a conversation with a gp to find alternatives for patients. Often I think the issue is under reported because the pharmacist has already solved the problem for the patient. To change dose or dosage form or medicine depending on the problem and availability of other solutions

The challenge for the pharmacist ist hat this is additional unpaid work

12. Please describe in detail where any of the following have helped you to respond to a medicine shortage or discontinuation:

GP support is essential… it’s not always practical to send the patient back to the gp who has a 2 week wait to get in, when they are short of the medicine today.

Mandatory reporting of shortages to tga is important. Lots of shortages occur when drug companies “buy a molecule” then rebrand with their details and cause the out of stock on what should be a planned and accounted for event.

Also once a medicine is on the tga shortlist it should be mandatory that wholesalers limit supply to reduce a panic buy

Communicating about medicine shortages and discontinuations

13. Where do you get information about a medicine shortage or discontinuation? Select all that apply.

Please select all that apply
Health professional organisations
Patient organisations
Industry organisations
The TGA and other federal government agencies
State and territory government agencies
The media, including social media
Other sources, please specify

14. What information or updates about a medicine shortage or discontinuation do you find most helpful and from where?

How long will it be out of stock for or in short supply

15. What challenges do you face when receiving information about medicine shortages or discontinuations?

There needs to continue to allow pharmacists more freedom to address the shortage with less consultation but work within a scope of practice. Getting in contact with gps is not always easy and patients are often out of stock immediately

16. What challenges do you face when sharing information about medicine shortages or discontinuations?

Reassuring patients that the alternatives available are acceptable.

17. What do you think about the information on the TGA website about medicine shortages and discontinuations?

Very useful but sometimes causes a panic buy and worsens the shortage

18. Do you have any suggestions to improve the TGA’s communication of this information?

Ensure that wholesalers put buying restrictions on medicines as soon as the shortage is announced

Impact of medicine shortages and discontinuations

19. Over the past 12 months, how much time did you spend on medicine shortages or discontinuations? What activities took the most time?

Finding stock.
Contacting GPS
Follow up paperwork for new scripts that were verbally approved but gp forgot to do the new script

20. What were the most challenging activities and why?

Deciding which patients are the “most desperate” for the stock you have available and who can “afford” to miss out

21. Tell us about the health-related impacts of medicine shortages or discontinuations.

This is probably under reported due to pharmacists intervening and coming up with a solution.

But it’s unacceptable regardless

22. Are there other impacts of medicine shortages and discontinuations that you would like to mention?

No

Improvement opportunities

23. What is the biggest problem within the following areas that you want fixed, and why?

I think the bigges issue is hwo fragile the supply line is, the last few years have highlighted how having 1 train line from east to west of aus can be an issue. When a drug company has a shortage is triggers the shortages for all the other companies. And Australia is often “bottom of the food chain” when it comes to global supply of medicines. We have too small a population and are too far away for global drug companies.

If we had a stronger supply chain, shortages would be less of an issue.

Discontinuations are annoying - stemetil being discontinued when there is no real alternative on the market is difficult to deal with.

24. What do you think of the current TGA regulatory framework around medicine shortages and discontinuations?

It has improved a lot but still has more to go

25. Do you have any suggestions about how to improve medicine shortages and discontinuations in Australia (i.e., what does good management of medicine shortages and discontinuations look like for you)?

I think I have mentioned my solutions in previous answers

26. Do you have any further comments about medicine shortages and discontinuations in Australia?

No

Consent

27. I consent to the collection, use or disclosure of my personal information as set out in the privacy notice and select the following option regarding the publication of my submission:

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(Required)
Publish my response, including both my name and organisation's name
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