“Okay, this is a real problem,” began a frenzied email to the Transom. “Brian,” who works at a fashion magazine in Manhattan, was distraught, explaining: “I had a horror of a time filling my last scrip. Duane Reade and CVS are both fucked citywide.”
“Brian” was referring to his prescription of Adderall XR. A shortage of Adderall – an amphetamine ostensibly used to treat Attention Deficit Disorder – was recently reported by the Wall Street Journal. A deadstock crisis is notable for the potential to wreck havoc on creative classes, students of all ages (during finals!), and then, of course, people actually prescribed it.
Adderall manufacturer Shire PLC blames the FDA for not boosting supply of amphetamine in December. The FDA has shrugged off responsibility, explaining that they did, in fact, approve the proper amount.
“Yeah, we don’t have that,” said Sam, a pharmacy associate at a nearby Duane Reade, when asked if a 30mg Adderall XR prescription could be filled there. “I’m not sure what’s going on. All I know is the pharmacist said it wasn’t there.” Calls to other Duane Reades around Manhattan yielded various results: some were “expecting a shipment,” others curiously explained that they only carry it on a customer-by-customer basis.
A woman at another location asked how much we needed: “Twenty? Yeah, I have enough.” The Duane Reade pharmacist near “Brian’s” office explained:
“[It’s] very hard to get. It’s been unavailable for a while. Other stores are calling me. I’ve got an order coming in on Thursday; we’ll see what happens. Right now, I’m out or low on [most kinds],” but, he explained, did have the generic brand. Some insurers, however, will only pay for the brand-name drug. Making matters worse: Shire actually supplies the generic version themselves, too.
“Brian” concluded: “This is a crisis of the creative class. The Adderall panic of 2011! It’s a worse problem than BIKE LANES.”
The Transom can’t agree more, finding it more and more difficult to focus every day, and then sometimes Tumblr goes down, and the pretzel bowls go empty, and we sit here and think, oh, a goldfish would go really nicely in that bowl, and then someone yells at us for letting the bowl stick around and not recycling it, usually Carlos, or whoever, and he’s right, even though who really recycles in Manhattan? They all say they do but come on, which also reminds us that we should probably get to know people better, not just people, but you know, people.
[fkamer@observer.com | On Twitter]
