A nationwide Adderall shortage could get worse as students head back to school
No refills… As students who took a summer break from Adderall return to pharmacies for their back-to-school refills, a nationwide shortage of ADHD meds could get even worse. Adderall’s been in short supply for 10 months, with 97% of pharmacists saying in a survey that they don’t have enough. Adderall alternatives are also stretched thin: In July, the FDA added more ADHD meds to its shortage list, including two kinds of Vyvanse.
In a rare team-up, the FDA and DEA recently issued a joint letter urging manufacturers to boost their ADHD med production.
Rising Adderall demand… is spotlighting the supply deficit. Manufacturers churned out 1B fewer doses of amphetamine meds (which include ADHD meds) than they were approved to make last year. They also fell behind gov’t quotas in 2021 and 2020. Meanwhile, US Adderall prescriptions jumped more than 10% from 2020 to 2021. That's partially been attributed to the pandemic-era rise of telehealth services like Cerebral — which was under investigation after former employees claimed it prescribed patients Adderall and Ritalin without proper screenings.
Widespread: Cerebral’s just one of several telehealth startups that have contributed to concerns that ADHD meds are being overprescribed.
Plz note: Doctors say demand is also up because more people are becoming aware of ADHD, and studies found some groups are still underdiagnosed.
Meeting med demand is complicated… It’s not your typical supply-demand relationship. Manufacturers have to get certain approvals to ramp up production of ADHD drugs. But even with approval, plants that often operate at capacity may have to make less of one drug in order to make more of another. The confidential nature of the DEA-regulated drugs also makes it hard to know why shortages occur.