Kids’ pain meds: Canada to get 500K additional units in coming weeks
Global News
An additional shipment of 500,000 units of children’s pain medications will be brought to Canada in the next three weeks as shortages continue amid a surge in viral illness.
An additional special shipment of 500,000 units of children’s pain and fever medications will be imported to Canada in the next three weeks as nationwide shortages continue amid a surge in viral illness.
This shipment is in addition to an emergency import of one million units of children’s acetaminophen and ibuprofen that arrived in Canada this week and a doubling of domestic production of these medications among some manufacturers in Canada.
A separate shipment of kids’ pain relievers from Australia is also headed for hospitals.
Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos says a significant rise in demand for these products is to blame for the shortages, noting that normal demand for children’s pain and fever medications in a normal year is about 300,000 to 400,000 units.
In November alone, the company that manufactures children’s Advil in Canada, Haleon, produced 1.1 million units of the product for the Canadian market, Duclos said.
“The issue, obviously, is that the stocks of analgesics have fallen significantly in the last month, starting in the summer… the circulation of respiratory viruses is at a level that hasn’t been seen in many years and is above the expected levels at this time. So demand is very significant.”
The spike in demand comes as Canada is in the throes of its worst cold and flu season on record, with cases of influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and COVID-19 circulating across the country.
Influenza cases in particular have risen sharply over the last week, with an “unusually high” number of children and teens infected with flu, Canada’s chief medical officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, said Friday.
