Amoxicillin, over the counter medication shortages impacting pharmacies across region

FLORENCE TWP., New Jersey (WPVI) -- It's been a long winter of sickness, especially for parents.

"I've heard other parents saying that they can't find Tylenol, Motrin no matter where they go -- CVS, Wegmans -- any kind of pharmacy they go to," said Nancy Mazahreh of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, who is happy she stocked up in September.

Shortages of children's over-the-counter medicines persist, along with frequently prescribed antibiotics like Amoxicillin.

"To take care of the patients, we really have to scramble," said pharmacist Clark Boyd of Boyd's Pharmacy in Florence Twp., New Jersey. "We have other stores so we're constantly calling back and forth. It's been a struggle for the patients, it's been a real struggle for us."

Boyd is also seeing a huge demand for Adderall and other drugs used to treat attention deficit disorder.

"Of course, you have the DEA which puts a cap on production," said Boyd. "So a lot of people are in trouble there because they can't get along without those medications."

The FDA said Tuesday that while it cannot force manufacturers to increase production, "the public should rest assured the FDA is working closely with numerous manufacturers and others in the supply chain to understand, mitigate and prevent or reduce the impact of intermittent or increased demand of certain products."

It's a nationwide issue that's been felt in Pennsylvania, too.

"This year has been as bad as it's ever been as far as I can recall," said Rob Frankil, executive director of the Philadelphia Association of Retail Druggists.

Marc Ost, co-owner of Eric's Rx Shoppe in Horsham, Pennsylvania, has been making a lot of phone calls trying to help customers.

"We'll figure out a solution, whether that's contacting the prescriber to switch to a medication we have in stock, or contacting one of the pharmacies we have a network with in order to see if someone has it," said Ost.

A CVS spokesperson told Action News Tuesday: "There's an industry-wide supplier shortage of certain doses of Amoxicillin and we're working with manufacturers to replenish supply as quickly as possible. In the event an individual CVS Pharmacy store is temporarily out-of-stock, our pharmacy teams assist patients in locating the product at other nearby locations and work with prescribers to determine potential alternatives."