For months, Rebecca Rowland and her family scoured the state for a pharmacy that would carry her father’s epilepsy medication.
The medicine is Teva clobazam in short supply in Canada As a result, since the summer, Roland, who lives in Kitchener, Ont., has been constantly contacting pharmacies across the province in hopes of refilling just a few days’ worth of medication.
“We’re going back and forth to the pharmacy trying to find pieces,” she told CP24.com earlier this week.
She said her family recently found drugs in Huntsville and Bracebridge, but the cause was A major storm occurred in this area Earlier this month, they failed to reach it.
“Right now, my dad has enough money to send me off for the weekend,” she said in an interview Tuesday.
“We’re constantly calling and adding things to the list of things that the pharmacy might have some of, but it’s a concern for him,” Roland said.
Her father is 90 years old and has been taking anti-epileptic drugs since suffering a head injury at work in the 1980s, she said.
Rowland said epilepsy medications can be “hit and miss” until the right drug is found, but since he started taking Teva Clobazam, it has worked perfectly to control his seizures.
She said her father is very healthy except for the need for this medication.
“He’s in amazing condition even at 90 years old,” Roland said.
When she told her father’s neurologist about the drug shortage, she said he was told the only option was to try another brand and hope it worked.
“They don’t want to try another type of drug because it might not work at all,” Rowland said, noting there is a significant risk of sudden seizures.
“Right now we don’t know if he will survive the attack.”
She said another aggravating factor is that the drug is listed as a controlled substance, making it even more difficult to obtain.
“That in itself has been a nightmare,” she said, adding that her father takes four pills a day.
“There’s all kinds of rules about whether you can bury it or not. So even if you go find 20 or so pills somewhere, it’s important to get a little stockpile for him. You can’t, because then the next (pharmacist) won’t refill the pills until he’s about to go out again,” she said.
The shortage was supposed to end in the fall.
Initially, the shortage was supposed to last until October, she said.
“When October came around, we thought we had succeeded. We had enough drugs. We had been keeping him going. Then in November, the drug shortage continued,” Rowland said. Ta.
“We thought, okay, let’s keep this going a little bit longer.”
The shortage was then extended until April 2025.
“The worry is that even if we find enough doses by April, what will happen if we don’t have the drug by then,” she says.
Another problem, she noted, is that pharmacies are now starting to tell her that the inventory they have in stock is about to expire.
She said her family is even considering whether they can get medicine across the border.
“There are so many rules about traveling out of the country for controlled substances,” she says.
To get the medicine from the United States, she said, her family would have to find a doctor in the United States to prescribe the medicine and have it filled at a local pharmacy.
“He is only allowed to bring 30 pills across the border each time,” she says.
She added that frequent trips back and forth across the border would be taxing for a man his age.
“You can’t search forever, so you need someone to help you find another solution,” she said.
Health Canada said in a statement to CP24.com that it is “doing everything in our power” to prevent shortages and resolve them if they occur.
“Clobazam tablets are available in 10 mg strength and sold by two manufacturers: Apotex and Teva. Teva has reported shortages due to manufacturing disruptions, with an expected end date of April 20, 2025. Apotex has not yet reported this,” the agency said in a statement.
“Health Canada has and will continue to actively engage with these manufacturers to evaluate product availability and options to reduce the impact of the shortage.”
Roland said his father tried Apo’s version of the drug about 10 years ago, but had to stop taking it after experiencing seizure-like symptoms.
She said she will eventually have to switch when the medication runs out.
“We are very concerned about what the outcome will be,” she said.
“He told me if I had to make the switch… ‘You’re going to have to call me every morning to make sure I’m awake,'” Roland said.
Laura Dixon, president of the Epilepsy Alliance of Canada, said the longer the shortage lasts, the more people will be affected.
“This kind of supply interruption is potentially dangerous for people for whom this treatment is their only means of relief from attacks,” she says.
“And the shortage is expected to be resolved by October and is now predicted to last until April, so there will obviously be many more people affected.”
“Significant consequences”
Dr. Daniel Andrade, a neurologist and medical director of the epilepsy program at the University Medical Network, said teva clobazam is a commonly prescribed drug and the shortage could affect thousands of patients. He said it was highly sexual.
“For patients who were able to control their seizures with this drug, they can have them again, which can cause all sorts of problems, from head injuries from seizures and fractures to loss of the ability to drive.” she said.
Andrade noted that for older patients, these injuries can be “life-threatening.”
“It can have serious consequences,” she says.
Andrade added that the Canadian Anti-Epileptic Federation is scheduled to meet with Health Canada next week to get an update on the shortage.
“While drug shortages for this particular drug are relatively common, there is no clear explanation as to why they occur,” she said.
“As far as I know, there are no clear plans for how to avoid them in the future.”
