Alberta secures 5 million bottles of children's pain and fever meds to distribute across province, then country
CTV
Alberta Health Services has procured five million bottles of children's acetaminophen and ibuprofen and will distribute the drugs first across the province, then across Canada, the Alberta government says.
Alberta Health Services has procured five million bottles of children's acetaminophen and ibuprofen and will distribute the drugs first across the province, then across Canada, the Alberta government says.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Health Minister Jason Copping made the announcement Tuesday morning, speaking at a downtown Edmonton drug store.
"In the days ahead, we will be working closely with Alberta Health Services and Health Canada to expedite the approval process and get this additional supply to Canada and onto Alberta pharmacy shelves and into hospitals as quickly as possible," Copping told reporters.
"Once approvals are in place, we should only be a few weeks. The medication will be sent to us in a number of shipments. When a shipment is received, the bottles will be available for ordering by pharmacies across the province and distributed within a couple of days."
Smith added, "You can feel confident that we are all moving as quickly as we can so Alberta families can get what they need."
The Alberta government says it is making the medication available to pharmacies at "a price that lets them sell it at the average retail price," which may sell the product from behind the counter if they are concerned about hoarding.
The government's supplier, Atabay Pharmaceuticals and Fine Chemicals, has supplied dozens of markets in Europe and around the world for decades, Smith and Copping said.
