A shortage of a widely used anti-seizure drug has Vancouver patients struggling to find a pharmacy that still has stock — and making plans in case it runs out all together.
Daina Balodis was surprised when she went to refill a prescription containing clobazam, an anti-seizure drug she uses to control tonic-clonic seizures caused by multiple sclerosis, and was told her pharmacy had no more.
She checked with several other Safeway pharmacies in Vancouver and also came up empty-handed. Finally, her pharmacist found a box at a Rexall drug store across town.
“I think I might have gotten the last box in Vancouver,” Balodis said Friday.
Clobazam was the subject of a notice by the B.C. Epilepsy Society in May advising patients the drug shortage is “worsening”.
The society warned patients to speak to their doctors to find another medication to avoid withdrawal symptoms.
Balodis said clobazam has worked well for her and has prevented seizures since she started taking it in conjunction with another drug about six years ago.
“What do they say? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” she said. “To switch would cause a great deal of anxiety.”
Clobazam has been in short supply on and off for the last three years.
According to Suzanne Nurse, chair of the Canadian Epilepsy Alliance Drug Shortage Committee, an estimated 20,000 to 40,000 Canadians rely on clobazam.
Nurse said she has been contacted by a number of patients and families desperate for help.
“They’re terrified that their loved one is going to die as a result of not being able to obtain this medication,” she explained. “I’ve spoken to people who have been seizure-free on this medication for decades. It’s the only drug that’s ever worked for some people.”
A spokesman for Apotex, a generic drug company that supplies 70-80 per cent of the clobazam sold in Canada, said the company recently released a quantity of the medication to distributors, who will then ship the pills to pharmacies.
“We have also received a new consignment of raw material and have commenced manufacturing more tablets,” said Elie Betito. “Further product will be available to the market in early August.”
But for Balodis, who has a 30-day supply and a “Plan B” worked out with her neurologist, the shortage highlights a larger problem.
“I don’t understand how this can happen,” she said. “It’s not like a pair of Adidas sneakers that’s sold out. It’s a life-saving medication.”
She is calling on government to make pharmaceutical companies more accountable to patients who rely on their products.
— with a file by The Canadian Press
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